‘Remote Voting’ Facility May be Launched in 2024 LS Polls: CEC

NEW DELHI: Chief election commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora on Saturday said that ‘remote voting’ facility — enabling persons who cannot be at their polling booths on election day for different reasons, to exercise their franchise from a remote location — may be offered in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, with first pilot project likely to start in the next 2-3 months.
“A team of technocrats and experts from IIT Chennai and other IITs is working on it (‘remote voting’ or ‘blockchain’ voting system) in full swing. We hope to see the first pilot project in next 2-3 months,” Arora said in his address at the Sansad Ratna Awards-2021 event here on Saturday.

The CEC, who retires next month, added that another key long-term electoral reform EC is hoping to roll out in the next six months to a year is NRI voting. Stating that a proposal to amend the rules to allow NRIs to vote by e-postal ballot was recently sent by EC to the law ministry, the CEC said the commission would, as suggested by the external affairs ministry, hold a seminar with the stakeholders on the modalities, after the current round of assembly polls.
Arora also welcomed the recent statement by the law minister that the government was considering EC’s proposal for linkage of Aadhaar with EPIC voter card, adding that this would do away with multiplicity of cards a voter needs to identify himself at the polling station.

On remote voting, Arora had earlier told TOI in an interview that EC always stood for promoting greater inclusion for election so that “no voter is left behind”. With technology as a great enabler, the EC started a research project early this year to enable remote voting for those ‘on the move’ including students, patients, professionals, migrant labourers and essential service providers.
“It needs to be underscored that the project is neither aimed at internet-based voting nor does it imply voting from home. For the Commission, transparency and confidentiality of voting is always a guiding consideration,” he said adding that there would be process changes and wider consultations with all the stakeholders including political parties before the facility is rolled out.

Source: ToI