{"id":189676,"date":"2022-06-09T20:44:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=189676"},"modified":"2022-06-09T20:44:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T15:14:08","slug":"no-more-lost-votes-ecs-pilot-on-remote-voting-for-migrants-is-a-big-plus-for-democracy-aim-for-2024-full-rollout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/no-more-lost-votes-ecs-pilot-on-remote-voting-for-migrants-is-a-big-plus-for-democracy-aim-for-2024-full-rollout\/","title":{"rendered":"No more lost votes: EC\u2019s pilot on remote voting for migrants is a big plus for democracy. Aim for 2024 full rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: Democracy becomes meaningful and equitable when every citizen has a fair chance to cast a vote. Hence, the Election Commission move to conduct a pilot project to explore the possibility of remote voting for migrant workers is a big plus for electoral democracy.<\/p>\n

Why remote voting provision is significant?<\/h5>\n

Internal migrants will benefit<\/strong>: Not everyone can take a train or flight back home to vote. Nearly 300 million citizens out of a total of 910 million electors didn\u2019t cast their votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Ways to enfranchise them must be found.<\/p>\n

From the 2011 Census that counted 450 million internal migrants, the number is estimated to be 600 million<\/strong> now. Short-term migrants who spend some months of the year in cities far away from their villages rarely acquire a vote in their place of work. This category will benefit from EC\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

What are some associated challenges?<\/h5>\n

Logistic issues<\/strong>: Migrants will have to be mapped and then enrolled for remote voting. Designated polling centres must be set up across India.<\/p>\n

There will be election day tech challenges \u2013 verifying voter identities and ensuring the vote cast on the EVM is channelled to the correct booth and constituency.<\/p>\n

Also, those listed for remote voting but turning up physically at domicile polling booths due to personal or other emergencies \u2013 recall the lockdown \u2013 must be accommodated.<\/p>\n

Way forward<\/h5>\n

With institutional and political will, difficulties can be overcome.<\/p>\n

From shuttling security forces and polling officers across polling phases, sanitising electoral rolls, enrolling first-time voters to getting the women\u2019s vote out, EC is a past master at resolving logistical problems.<\/p>\n

The previous Lok Sabha had passed a bill to extend proxy voting facility to NRIs<\/strong>, but the bill lapsed. Such reforms should get cross-party backing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As EC starts the migrant voting pilot project, it should also start the process of identifying migrant voter clusters<\/strong>. Gujarat is a migrant worker hub. Let the pilot happen there and EC should aim for a 2024 full rollout.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article “No more lost votes: EC\u2019s pilot on remote voting for migrants is a big plus for democracy. Aim for 2024 full rollout<\/strong>\u201d published in The Times of India<\/strong> on 8th June 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Democracy becomes meaningful and equitable when every citizen has a fair chance to cast a vote. Hence, the Election Commission move to conduct a pilot project to explore the possibility of remote voting for migrant workers is a big plus for electoral democracy. Why remote voting provision is significant? Internal migrants will benefit: Not… Continue reading No more lost votes: EC\u2019s pilot on remote voting for migrants is a big plus for democracy. Aim for 2024 full rollout<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-189676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704955283},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}