Bengaluru: Ahead of Karnataka elections slated on May 10, the Election Commission of India for the first time has introduced a ‘Vote from Home’ facility.

Detailing the facility Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Meena, 2003-batch IAS officer, said that the ‘Vote from Home’ facility will be introduced in poll-bound Karnataka for the first time from April 29 to May 6.

He said the new initiative is for elderly and specially-abled voters to cast their votes from home. This new voting arrangement will benefit approximately 5.71 lakh people with disabilities and 12,15,763 elderly people above the age of 80 in the state.

A total of 99,529 people have chosen the 'Vote from Home' option, including 80,250 senior citizens above the age of 80 and 19,729 specially-abled voters, said Meena.
The CEO said that this voting method is only applicable to people "who are either confined to their homes or suffering from age-related ailments." The voting exercise will start on April 29 and continue until May 6, during which separate polling staff will visit each eligible voter's house with a team of five members, including two polling officials, one cop, and one videographer.

They will check the voter's ID, obtain a declaration, and hand over a ballot paper. The voter will have to cast their vote inside a secret compartment and drop it in an envelope. If the voter is not available during the visit, the team will reschedule the visit. If the voter is not available during the second visit, they will lose the chance to vote.

Meena said the state has 5,31,33,054 registered voters of them, out of which 16 lakh are new. The final electoral roll was published on January 15.

He said the enrollment activities were held till April 10 and 16,04285 voters were added. While there were 5,05,15,011 voters for the 2018 Assembly elections, their number increased by 25 lakhs, including 11,71,558 young voters aged between 18 and 19, this time.

Double ballots to be used in 16 constituencies

A voter guide having all information in Kannada or English will be distributed ahead of the elections.

Meena said 58,545 polling stations have been set up with facilities such as ramps, drinking water, electricity, furniture, waiting rooms with seating arrangements and separate toilets for men and women.

In Bengaluru, Queue Management App (Chunavana App) will provide information on the queue status at polling stations.

It will be updated every 15 minutes, Meena said. He said awareness and training programmes for polling officials and first randomisation of EVMs have been completed in all districts. In 16 constituencies, double ballots will be used as there are more than 15 candidates.

The second randomisation has been completed in 26 constituencies. It will be completed in the remaining constituencies by April 30, he added. He said 3,59,253 polling personnel will be deputed this time. /BI/