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Mahesh

23/03/24 13:00 PM IST

Vote-from-home facility in the Lok Sabha elections

In News
  • The ECI has, for the first time in the history of the Lok Sabha elections, extended its ‘vote-from-home’ facility to Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and senior citizens aged 85 and above.
How to avail the vote-from-home facility?
  • Key to the process is Form 12D, which is a letter informing the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) that the person may not be in a position to go to the polling station to vote.
  • The form can be downloaded online from the ECI website or collected from the office of the representative district officer of a parliamentary constituency.
  • Ideally, if people with disability have the option to vote from home, they should be allowed to submit this form online too.
  • Once filed, two polling officials, accompanied by a videographer and a security person, will visit the elector’s home and oversee the postal ballot voting process.
  • The voter will receive an intimation about the date and approximate time of visit via SMS or through post.
  • The home voting option will be attempted twice.
  • The polling team will schedule a second visit if the elector fails to be at the given address during the first visit.
  • If the voter is absent on the second visit, “a further visit will not be entertained.” The voter will subsequently be ineligible to vote both at polling booths or through the home voting scheme.
  • Each team of poll officers is required to
  • (a) issue postal ballot to each of the Absentee Voters assigned to it,
  • (b) brief the elector about the procedure to be followed for voting through postal ballot,
  • (c) make sure that the elector votes without anyone influencing his/her choice, and ensuring the secrecy of voting, all activities at the address of the elector concerned, according to a November 2022 communique for the Vote-from-home facility.
Other initiatives
  • The government is also experimenting with remote voting for domestic migrants.
  • The Multi Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) would allow people who migrate within the country for employment and opportunity (almost 450 million, as per the latest 2011 census) to vote for their home constituencies from remote locations.
  • Internal migrants face a string of challenges due to the transient nature of their life and livelihood.
  • Many are reluctant to get themselves enrolled multiple times, unwilling to get names deleted from electoral roll of home constituencies and facing an emotional disconnect with the places they migrate to.
  • If implemented, “it can lead to a social transformation for the migrants and connect with their roots.
  • The ECI has mandated officials to provide Assured Minimum Facilities (AMF) like ramps, wheelchairs, first aid and toilets at polling stations. Measures, new and old, are being highlighted, including provision of free transportation on poll day, appointment of State and District PwD icons, and Braille-enabled EVMs and EPICs. 
Source- The Hindu

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