New voters to get personalised letter from EC along with voter I card

The Election Commission on Thursday unveiled a new initiative to reach out to new voters by sending them a personalised letter along with their voter identity card.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar launched the initiative. The new voters will get a personalised letter from the Commission when they are sent their voter identity cards.

The package would include a voter guide for new voters along with a congratulatory letter and a pledge for ethical voting, the Commission said in a statement.

The initiative was launched during a two-day SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) consultation workshop.

The agenda of the workshop was to review state SVEEP plans and conduct extensive deliberations on the important aspects of SVEEP for a comprehensive strategy for the forthcoming assembly elections.

Addressing the participants, Chandra observed that each voter interacts with the election machinery at two critical stages -- enrollment and polling day. He stressed that the field teams should ensure that the enrolment process is seamless and polling experience remains pleasant and hassle free for the voters.

He said it is imperative that we evaluate our strategy and current interventions at regular intervals, identify critical gaps and address the challenges to devise deliverable action points.

The CEC emphasised that implementation of the strategy at the ground level is important.

Election Commissioner Kumar said the need for communication is self evident in today's world. He highlighted the role of social media and the new mediums of communication in outreach efforts.

He felt partnering with district level local icons will help strengthen our messaging with our voters.

Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, while interacting with the teams on the previous day, highlighted the importance of synergy between the use of social media and traditional forms of communication in the SVEEP strategy.

Pandey said that the state teams should further conduct similar workshops and deliberations with district electoral officers and their teams in respective states.

The two-day consultation workshop was attended by chief electoral officers and SVEEP nodal officers from Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand which are ging to polls early next year.

To broaden the idea and knowledge exchange, senior officers from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting were also invited for the workshop.

Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation programme is the flagship programme of the Election Commission for voter education and awareness, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.