The Election Commission dismissed a report by an online news portal alleging a mismatch between votes polled and counted in the Maharashtra Assembly Elections. The ECI termed the news report as misleading, inaccurate, and bereft of facts. In a letter written by the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer to the editor of the portal, the poll body clarified that the alleged mismatch of over 5 lakh votes in the report was mischievously quoted and failed to account for postal votes in a seemingly deliberate attempt to mislead and sensationalize. The Commission mentioned that the postal ballots, which were part of the total votes in the Voter Turnout APP (VTA), were not included by the portal. It criticized the news report, stating that it was misleading, inaccurate, and written and published in haste without accounting for the accurate details.