Ballot arrives at doorstep for over 8K Bengaluru residents

As many as 8,730 people older than 80 years and those with disabilities have opted for the vote-from-home option in Bengaluru, taking advantage of a first-of-its-kind initiative rolled out by the Election Commission for the Assembly polls.

The move comes as the EC, wary of voter apathy in urban centres, is looking at every opportunity to nudge citizens into exercising their franchise.

Under the initiative, representatives from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will create a temporary polling booth right in residences of voters who suffer from mobility issues.

What’s more, these voters will get to cast their votes at least four or five days before the polling date of May 10.

Of the total figure, around 8,611 come under the 80-plus age group and 119 are persons with disabilities (PWD). The final number may vary as the returning officers (ROs) have four more days to submit the data while the last date to apply for the vote-from-home option was on April 17.

The exercise of identifying voters seeking the vote-from-home option involved a house visit from a booth level officer (BLO) checking the physical condition of the voter. Not all those who were above the 80-plus age group made the cut for the option. Similarly, it has been learnt that those who suffered from more than 40% disability were selected.

The process

On the day of voting, the BBMP plans to replicate the polling station model right in the house of the selected voter. From presiding officer, first poll officer, booth level officer to police and videographer will visit their houses.

As the exercise is distributed to polling booths, each booth may have less than a dozen such voters.

When the BBMP set out on an exercise to check the voters who fall in the 80-plus age category, it covered both houses and orphanages.

What they found was that almost half the voters had either shifted their houses or died or were absent. In Bengaluru, there are around 2.36 lakh people who fall under this category and the figure is beyond 12 lakh across the state.

Speaking to DH, Rama Devi (93), a resident of Basavanagudi, said she has opted for the vote-from-home option. “I did cast my vote in the last election at the polling station. I am very happy that the option to vote from my house has been given to me,” she said.