In a major step to increase voter participation, the Election Commission on Thursday said it has developed a prototype Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) for migrant domestic voters and invited political parties for a demonstration on January 16. If implemented after consultation with stakeholders, migrant voters will not have to travel to their home district to exercise their right to vote.
Terming counting of votes cast in remote booths and handing them over to the returning officer in other states a “technological challenge”, Election Commission (EC) officials said the RVMs will be developed as a “robust, resilient and efficient stand-alone system” based on existing electronic voting systems. devices and will not be connected to the Internet.
The panel also presented a concept note on remote voting and asked political parties for their views on the legal, administrative and technological issues involved in its implementation. Based on the feedback from various stakeholders and the demonstration of the prototype, the EC will continue the process of implementing remote voting as appropriate, according to the statement.
Developed by a public sector undertaking, the remote EVM for multiple constituencies can serve up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling station, a statement issued by the poll watchdog said. “After targeting youth and urban apathy, remote voting will be a transformative initiative to enhance participation in electoral democracy,” said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar.
With an aim to find a technological solution that would be credible, affordable and acceptable to all stakeholders, the committee headed by CEC Kumar along with Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel “has now explored the possibility of using a modified version of the time-tested EVM model M3 (Mark 3) , which allows domestic migrants to vote in remote polling stations – polling stations outside their home constituency,” the statement said.
The initiative, if implemented, could lead to a “social transformation” of migrants, it said. “Migrants are many times reluctant to register at their workplace for various reasons, such as frequent change of residence, lack of social and emotional connection with the issue of migration, reluctance to have their name deleted from the electoral roll. their home or native constituencies because they have permanent residence or property,” the survey panel said.
Elaborating on the concept note, the EC said it had invited all eight recognized national and 57 state political parties on January 16 to demonstrate the working of the multi-constituency RVM prototype. Members of the commission’s committee of technical experts will also be present.
