Claim
A misleading video is going viral on social media making claims of raising awareness while explaining concepts of 'challenge vote' and 'tender vote' to citizens. In the viral video, a woman can be seen elaborating on how one can cast a 'challenge vote' under section 49A by showing their Aadhar card if they do not have their name enrolled on the electoral list. She also says incase a citizen finds their vote already cast, they can cast a 'tendered vote'. She further states, if a polling station registered more than 14% of 'tender votes' then there will be repolling. She also claims if someone does not have a voter card then they can fill Form 8 at the polling station and cast their votes.
Fact
BOOM had fact-checked a similar claim about challenge votes and tender votes earlier when it went viral around the Lok Sabha Elections in 2024 and 2019.
On April 19, 2024, the official X handle of the Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra clarified that it is mandatory for a person's name to be included in the voters' list in order to cast a vote.
In order to verify the claim of tender votes, BOOM referred to the 'Tendered Votes' section in ECI's Handbook. It stated if a person claims to be a voter after another person has already voted using their identity, the Presiding Officer can permit the voter to cast their vote using a tendered ballot paper, but not through the voting machine. There is however no mention of repolling incase of more than 14% tender votes. Additionally, the CEO of Maharashtra had confirmed the same to BOOM in 2019.
Finally, we looked up for Form 8 in the ECI website and found that particular form is allotted for "shifting of Residence/Correction of Entries in Existing Electoral Roll/Replacement of EPIC/Marking of PwD."