New Delhi, June 1 -- The final phase of the 2024 general election concludes today with 57 constituencies across eight states and union territories polling for their representative at the centre. With this, the world's largest democratic process will be completed. The results will be announced on June 4th.

Before electronic voting machines were introduced in 2004, the counting of paper ballots was a massive and slow task. Hundreds of millions of paper ballots were counted manually in thousands of booths nationwide, turning the counting process into a Herculean task. The suspense of election results would stretch out over several days, leaving the nation in eager anticipation-a stark contrast to today's rapid digital updates.

During those...