Thiruvananthapuram: The State Election Commission directed the public not to use pen or other objects to press the button on the electronic voting machine. The polling officers should make sure that voters are not using any objects to cast their vote.

People use other objects for pressing the button in order to prevent COVID transmission through touch. Some people bring toothpicks and other things for this purpose. However, the Election Commission noticed that pressing the button using other objects causes damage to the voting machine.

The election candidates themselves had distributed pens in the previous phases of election. This was to avoid exchanging of pens for signing in the polling booth. But many people pressed the button using this pen.