Jagdish R Sharma
The extensive participation of voters is a good omen of a healthy democracy. The voters develop a sense of responsibility when they securely franchise their democratic rights. The democratic set-up is also compelled to be more responsive to the needs of the voters. The larger the participation, the better the electoral outcome. The People also repose their confidence and trust in the establishment so elected.
India is a diverse country vis-à-vis topography, culture, and populace. As per the Election Commission of India, there were 91 crore registered voters in the 2019 Parliamentary Elections and 30 crore voters couldn’t cast their votes due to multifarious reasons.
The freedom to access the vote has been established through a clutch of Supreme Court judgments to be “an inalienable part of Article 19 (1) (a), which guarantees the freedom of expression; however, this freedom, for circular migrants and many other groups, has become restricted by the fact that this right can only be exercised through in-person voting, in the constituency that they are registered”. Against such a backdrop, the Election Commission of India (ECI) mulled over the idea of using advanced technology without using the internet and allowing migrant workers to access their vote through ‘dynamic ballot’ in electronic voting machines (EVMs) or Remote Voting Machines (RVM) as a progressive step. While the EVMs currently have ballot units that list candidates only for a specific constituency.
ECI,with the objective of finding a technological solution for migrant voters, which is credible, accessible, and acceptable to all stakeholders, has explored the option of using a modified version of the time-tested model of M3 EVMs to enable voting at remote polling stations – outside home constituency, for all domestic migrants. Thus, the migrant voter need not travel back to his/her home district to exercise his/her right to franchise.
How RVM works?
As per the poll panel, the modified form of EVM can handle up to 72 multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth. The remote e-voting machine will be a standalone device which doesn’t need connectivity to operate. Suppose elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir, and Mr A is a registered voter of the Gandhinagar Jammu and Mr B is a registered voter at a polling booth in Lal Chowk, Srinagar and both are working in Delhi NCR. At the time of the elections, ECI will establish a remote polling booth in Delhi NCR. Before polling, Mr A and B shall get themselves registered online or offline, after producing Id proof. The concerned returning officers shall verify and then provide Id and Bar codes to enable them to vote at the remote polling booths.
Once the voter is verified and declared eligible for casting his or her vote remotely, a multi-constituency remote polling station will be set up in the area where they are currently staying. The RVMs will have the same security system and voting experience as the Electronic Voting Machines. These RVMs will have a different electronic ballot display system with candidates and symbols instead of a fixed ballot paper sheet. When the voter scans his/her constituency card/bar code in the presence of the Presiding Officer at the polling station, their respective constituency and candidate list will appear on the RVM display. As for counting the votes, the electronic system will also count and store the votes for each candidate in a constituency.
RVM will also have a VVPAT unit to verify the vote cast for the desired candidate. This way the hassle-free voting can be done from remote areas by the domestic migrant living in any part of India.
The Remote Voting Machine (RVM) would be a boon for migrants who normally remain out of the democratic process by economic compulsions-travelling back home, incurring spending and loss of income and, potentially, even employment often forces them to give up their franchise. The Covid pandemic has taught us the need for facilitating remote access for almost everything-from work-from-home culture to online classes, and in many other fields. It has only enabled our willpower to adopt remote voting as an evolutionary step for democracy. Taking a cue from this, the ECI set up a technical advisory group to develop a remote voting framework. Challenges specific to deployment of technology; remote voting will be there; EVMs and RVMs don’t use the internet to minimise the chances of hacking or manipulation. But, with the various existing safeguards and technological solutions that can be developed, the costs of this risk seem much smaller than crores of voters remaining out of the democratic process. ECI is working on a priority basis to address challenges of voter fraud, verification, integrating Aadhaar-based biometric authentication etc.
The Election Commission of India has circulated a concept note amongst political parties highlighting the challenges of defining domestic migrants, implementation of Model Code of Conduct, ensuring secrecy of voting, facility of polling agents for identification of voters, process and method of remote voting and counting of votes amongst other issues.
The initiative, if implemented, can lead to a social transformation for the migrants and connect with their roots as many times they are reluctant to get themselves enrolled at their place of work for various reasons such as frequently changing residences, not enough social and emotional connect with the issues of an area of migration, unwillingness to get their name deleted in the electoral roll of their home/native constituencies as they have permanent residence/property etc. And their emotional bonding.
The machine was developed by the poll panel in association with the Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) to allow domestic migrants to cast votes without having to travel to their respective home constituencies.
Though EC was ready, and the poll panel had invited all recognised eight national and 57 state political parties on January 16, 2023, to witness the demonstration and the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype Remote EVM. The demonstration was deferred, as many political parties invited to a meeting in New Delhi to witness its functioning questioned its need. Now the ECI has planned to demonstrate it soon, as, and when the stakeholders are willing to participate and give suggestions to implement it. It also proposes to use the RVMs as a pilot project during the assembly elections scheduled to be held in the last quarter of 2023. If everything goes well, the general elections in 2024 could witness its maximum use for larger participation of electorates.
Allowing remote voting for migrants would also allow them to consolidate as a voter base and force home-state policymakers and local authorities to take note of their requirements. Frequently they find themselves missing from the electoral rolls in their home constituencies, remote voting would ensure that this passive disenfranchisement by the state is also avoided up to a greater extent. In a move that could potentially allow domestic migrants to vote in elections in their native states even while away from home, the Election Commission of India had stated that it will provide the migrant voters with an opportunity to participate largely in the electoral system.
Some political parties are in the habit of raising doubts about the working of EVM also, only when they lose the electoral battle, but they feel good when they win the elections through these very EVMs. The same flock have again begun to raise doubts over the working of the RVMs without going through its nitty gritty. Fake narratives should be avoided. Some people are always ready to create fake narratives to shake the confidence and trust of voters in the election system of India, which is par excellence, fair and efficient. In simple words, it can be summed up that “Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.” We can hope that in near future the left-out voters (33% of the total vote) will be consolidated as a voter base.
(The author is formerly Principal JK School Education Department )
Follow our WhatsApp channel
