The video showed routine sealing, not rigging.
In the weeks before India's 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a two-year-old video of routine ballot-slip sealing was reborn as evidence of electoral fraud, amplified by a sitting politician and thousands of anxious citizens. The footage showed nothing more than officials following Election Commission protocol to the letter — removing VVPAT paper slips, sealing them in black envelopes, and documenting every step. That the ordinary could be made to look sinister speaks to something older than any single election: the way fear, once seeded, can transform transparency into its own shadow.
- A video of officials handling paper slips and black envelopes spread rapidly in April 2024, framed as proof that EVMs were being rigged to secure a BJP victory.
- A Congress leader from Manipur publicly called on the Supreme Court to intervene, and users tagged the chief election commissioner demanding accountability — all based on footage that was two years old.
- Reverse image searches by fact-checkers at NewsMeter traced the video to 2022, where it had already been identified and explained by a Gujarat state election official.
- The Election Commission's own May 2022 guidelines describe the procedure frame by frame: slips removed, sealed by polling station, labeled, copied, and sent to secure storage — exactly what the video shows.
- By the time corrections reached the public, the claim had already traveled far, illustrating how swiftly misinformation embeds itself when it confirms what people already fear.
In April 2024, a video began moving through Indian social media showing officials removing slips from machines and placing them into black envelopes. The framing was alarming: this, users claimed, was evidence of EVM tampering during the first phase of Lok Sabha voting. A Congress leader from Manipur posted the footage alongside a demand that the Supreme Court direct the Election Commission to investigate, alleging the BJP was manipulating machines to avoid defeat. Others tagged the chief election commissioner directly.
The claims spread quickly, feeding into long-standing anxieties about India's electronic voting infrastructure. But the video was not what it appeared to be. Fact-checkers at NewsMeter ran a reverse image search and found the footage had been circulating since 2022 — two full years before the election it was said to document.
What the video actually showed was the routine post-count sealing of VVPAT paper slips, a procedure mandated by the Election Commission and governed by guidelines published in May 2022. VVPAT — Verifiable Paper Audit Trail — slips must be removed from each machine's drop box, placed into thick black envelopes on a polling-station-by-station basis, labeled with identifying details, and sent in duplicate to a strongroom and the District Election Officer. The entire process is videographed by design.
When fact-checkers reviewed the viral footage against official protocol, every frame aligned. The slips were removed as required. The envelopes were filled as required. The machines were kept separate as required. There was no deviation — only procedure.
The episode captures a recurring problem in modern election cycles: misinformation does not need to fabricate events, only reframe them. The video was real. The procedures were lawful. But the narrative attached to them — active fraud, hidden manipulation — was entirely false, and it had already traveled far before the corrections caught up.
A video began circulating on social media in April 2024 showing people removing slips from machines and placing them into black envelopes. The framing was urgent and accusatory: this was evidence of EVM tampering during the first phase of voting in India's 2024 Lok Sabha elections, users claimed. Congress leader Lhingkim H Shingnaisui from Manipur posted the video alongside a statement asserting that the BJP was manipulating voting machines to prevent their defeat, and called for the Supreme Court to direct the Election Commission to investigate. Other users tagged the chief election commissioner, demanding answers about what they described as unauthorized people opening machines and replacing rolls.
The claims spread quickly across social media platforms, tapping into existing anxieties about electoral integrity. But the video was not what it appeared to be.
Fact-checkers at NewsMeter traced the video's origins through reverse image search and discovered it had been in circulation since 2022—two years before the 2024 elections. The Gujarat state election official who had previously addressed the video explained what was actually happening: the footage showed the routine sealing of VVPAT paper slips after counting, a procedure mandated by the Election Commission of India. VVPAT stands for Verifiable Paper Audit Trail, a paper record system designed to verify electronic voting results. After votes are counted, these paper slips must be sealed in black envelopes according to strict protocol, and the entire process is videographed and documented.
The Election Commission's own guidelines, published in May 2022, specify exactly what the video depicts. VVPAT paper slips are removed from the drop box of each machine, placed individually into thick black paper envelopes on a polling-station-by-station basis, and labeled with identifying details. One copy of the sealed envelope goes to the strongroom; another goes to the District Election Officer. The process is transparent, recorded, and designed precisely to prevent the kind of fraud the video's sharers were claiming to expose.
When fact-checkers watched the viral footage frame by frame, they found it aligned perfectly with these official procedures. The slips were being removed from machines as required. They were being placed into black envelopes as required. Each machine's slips were being kept separately as required. The columns on the envelopes were being filled with details as required. Nothing in the video showed manipulation or deviation from protocol.
The false claim had been made by social media users and amplified by a sitting Congress leader. It had been shared widely enough to generate concern about the integrity of India's electoral machinery. And it was based entirely on a misrepresentation of a routine administrative procedure that had taken place two years earlier, in a different election cycle.
The incident illustrates a persistent challenge in election cycles: the speed at which misinformation can spread when it confirms existing suspicions, and the difficulty of reaching audiences with corrections after a claim has already taken root. The video itself was not fabricated. The procedures it showed were not hidden or improper. But the narrative attached to it—that this was evidence of active fraud—was false. And by the time fact-checkers had traced the video to its source and verified the actual procedures, the claim had already traveled far.
Notable Quotes
As per ECI instructions, after counting is done the verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips are sealed in a black envelope so that the VVPATs can be again used in further elections.— Gujarat's Bhavnagar District magistrate, responding to the video in 2022
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone take a routine administrative video from 2022 and reframe it as evidence of current election fraud?
Because it looks suspicious if you don't know what you're looking at. People removing slips from machines, sealing them in envelopes—without context, that can seem clandestine. And in an election year, when people are already anxious about outcomes, a video like that finds an audience immediately.
But the Election Commission publishes these procedures publicly, right?
Yes. The guidelines are there. The process is videographed and stored. It's designed to be transparent. But a two-minute video without explanation circulates faster than a PDF from a government website.
Did the people sharing it actually believe it was fraud, or were they deliberately spreading false information?
That's hard to say. Some may have genuinely misunderstood what they were seeing. Others may have known better but shared it anyway because it served a political narrative they wanted to promote. The Congress leader who posted it had a platform and presumably some understanding of electoral procedures.
What happens after a fact-check like this is published?
It gets published. Some people read it and adjust their understanding. Many others never see it, or see it but don't believe it. The original video and the original claim often have more reach than the correction.
So the misinformation wins?
Not entirely. The record exists now. Election officials and observers know what happened. But yes—in the moment, the false claim does more damage than the correction can undo.