Organizing National Elections in India to Elect the 543 Members of the Lok Sabha

With an electorate of 717 million in 2009, 1.3 million electronic voting machines deployed in 834000 polling stations spread across the length and breadth of India, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha from among 8000 candidates contesting the elections, the General Elections in India held once every 5 years, is the world’s biggest election exercise. The responsibility for conducting these elections vests in the Election Commission of India. This chapter discusses the various decision making problems that they face in its organization, and efficient algorithms used to solve them.