Citizen volunteers brought a non-partisan flavour to the voting process in Sarvagnanagar constituency, where they were seen seated besides party workers at the polling station to assist citizens who had trouble locating their voter ID cards.
The volunteers, Ashok B, Karthik Bhat and Krishna Vedavyasa, who are businessmen and IT professionals, told DH that they have been volunteering on election day since 2003.
"Citizens struggle to navigate the Election Commission website to gather details about their voter IDs. We help them trace their IDs in just a few minutes. We use Excel spreadsheets, which help speed up the search. We use different spellings, house addresses, father's name, and location to trace the requirement," Vedavyasa told DH.
The presence of a non-partisan, neutral group lends confidence to the voting process, they said. "It makes a difference when citizens, who are on neutral grounds, take responsibility to encourage fellow citizens to cast their vote. In our own way, we have urged citizens to come out and vote," said Ashok.