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In-person voting for this year's midterm elections begins Friday, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide who they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues. Election administrators say they're prepared and confident the vote will be accurate and secure. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has continued with efforts to denigrate certain voting methods and reshape how US elections are run, through court challenges, an expansive federal hunt for noncitizen voters and a pressure campaign to force election officials to share sensitive voter data. Friday marks the start of early voting in Virginia. Voters in a handful of other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, are able to cast absentee ballots in person, typically at a local election office or voting centre. More expansive early voting is scheduled to begin in those and other states in the coming weeks. The November 3 election includes vot
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said with EVMs, people have "lost the right" to know who they have voted for. Speaking at an event on National Voters' Day, on the eve of Republic Day, he said the country must revert to elections through ballot paper. The former Maharashtra chief minister also took swipes at the BJP and its predecessors, stating that freedom of the country is now in the hands of those who had no connection with the freedom struggle. "They participated neither in the Indian freedom struggle, nor in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement," he said, referring to the movement for the formation of the Maharashtra state. There is no value to voting any longer, Thackeray said, adding that whether EVMs can be tampered with or not is a technical question, but all the institutions have been captured. "When polling took place through ballot paper, we knew who we voted for," Thackeray said. Though there is Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) along with EVM,
Heavy police security was deployed on Tuesday at a village in Maharashtra's Malshiras assembly segment after some locals cast doubt on the EVMs and insisted on conducting a "re-election" with ballot papers, officials said. The Malshiras sub-divisional magistrate on Monday imposed prohibitory orders, under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, from December 2 to 5 in the area to avoid any conflict or law and order situation due to the "repoll" plan of some locals, an official said. Residents of Markadwadi village under Malshiras segment in Solapur district have put up banners claiming a "repoll" will be held on December 3. The village comes under the Malshiras assembly constituency, where NCP (SP) candidate Uttam Jankar defeated BJP's Ram Satpute by 13,147 votes in the November 20 state polls, the results of which were declared on November 23. Though Jankar won the seat, Markadwadi residents claimed he polled less votes in their village against Satpute which was not