Dedicated To Democracy

Officials tramped out into rice paddies with voting cards to educate the public on how to mark them. Machines were brought into remote areas so that all who desired could cast their ballot. The educated or the uneducated, the villager or the recent city dweller all are important to India.

With fancy jewelry this voter is both seen and heard.

In India some like to cover up and that is okay too. If you are registered you can vote.

So now the voting is over. It started the first part of April and area by area the voting moved forward. The exit polls are not refined in India and there are certain rules of what and when things can be said. The outcome was that even the winning party was surprised at how well they did. Unfortunately the losing party was surprised at how poorly they did.

They voted in Chennai on Wednesday and then the polls were closed and the counting began.
As for us we stayed out of it. All missionaries were quarantined on the day of the announcement of the final tally. Seeing a country of 1.1 billion go to the polls is a unique experience. Our city was orderly during the process. It is just on announcement day that some like to cause a bit of a ruckus and it's safer to stay off the streets.