The Election Commission on June 7 said that a committee will be set up to examine the issues of migrant voters, including exploring possibilities of remote voting after consultations with all stakeholders including political parties and electors.
To counter the indifference of elections in urban areas, all central and state government departments, central and state PSUs, and companies with more than 500 employees have “abstained but voted. You will be asked to appoint a node officer to identify “no employees”.
Special voter education and awareness sessions will be held
Election bodies have stated that special voter education and awareness sessions will be held for such non-voting members of these organizations, and under the Negotiable Commodity Act, election days will promote voting. According to staff who stated that the main purpose was to be declared as a holiday for all workplaces.
At election commission meetings, turnout is very low in some metropolitan areas / urban areas, even though polling stations are set up within 2 km for all voters in the city.
Announcing decisions taken at the meeting held earlier in the day, the panel said, “Voters migrate from the place of their registration to cities and other places for education, employment, and other purposes. It becomes difficult for them to return to their registered polling stations to cast their vote.
Double the remuneration of polling
Days after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar undertook an hours-long trek to a remote polling station in Uttarakhand, the poll panel also decided to double the remuneration of polling officials going to such booths as early as three days before voting day.
Booths to be water and shockproof with extra protective cases
It was also decided to develop special water and shockproof, extra protective backpacks or cases to carry EVM-VVPATs and safeguard the machines provided to all the teams to aid hands-free movement in difficult terrain.
Decisions taken by the EC in the last three weeks
This is the third major decision taken by the EC in the last three weeks after Kumar took over as the CEC. The first one related to personal austerity when the Commissioners gave up certain facilities. The second decision tightened the noose around recognized unregistered political parties flouting rules.
EVM-VVPAT machines will trigger in unauthorized access mode
The Commission noted that the EVM-VVPAT machines have been technologically designed to get triggered in ‘unauthorised access mode’ whenever there is an unauthorized attempt to open it and become unusable because of the one-time programmable chip.
Two-way electronic voting system in a controlled environment
Explaining the “blockchain” technology involved in the project, then Vice Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena previously described the concept as two-way electronic voting system in a controlled environment on white-listed IP devices on dedicated Internet lines enabled with biometric devices and a web camera.
Saxena, however, made it clear that voters will have to reach a designated venue during a pre-decided period of time to be able to use this facility.
