An ID-iculous Voter gate

The days leading up to the Karnataka election were filled with a lot hullbaloo. We saw a number of politicians campaigning. But, on election day, the turnout was pretty mediocre with only 70 percent of people coming out to vote, and Bengaluru recording just 50 percent voter turnout. The reason behind this paltry number? While some say that their names were not on the list, others were not able to vote due to issues with their voter’s id card. We spoke to young Bengalureans who share their experiences on the lack lustre process.

Voting is a privilege that we have been given to select the best candidate. But, what is the use of this privilege when one cannot vote? Shekar Vijayan, an entertainer says, “I had applied for a voter ID card in the first week April.  I thought the card would come in a month’s time but the card never turned up. Hence, I was not able to cast my vote yesterday. The website I applied to is very slow. If you want people to vote, then the process needs to be quick and streamlined. I tried multiple times to find the status of the card for which I didn’t get any response at all. I think the entire technology of getting the voter’s id card was done in a hurry. I don’t think any checks were done to see if it was working properly.”

Menaka Mudgil an IT professional did over 12 trips to the voter ID card office to get hers. She says, “I think the voter ID process is filled with loopholes, as I have faced such a huge problem. Infact, I have personally gone to the office over 12 times to get the ID, and there has been some issue or the other. I finally did get my ID after so much of hassle, and it makes me wonder why the process is so laborious and faulty.”

Some people had issues even while applying for a ID card. Mahendra Narashimullu, a professional says, “I was only able to cast my vote yesterday because the voter’s ID card came a week ago. But, the hassle that I went through to get the first card was something that I do not want to go through again. I have tried to apply for the voter’s ID card for the past 10 years. It was after three attempts that I finally got the card. I applied once through the office, once through a political party worker and through the election team itself. I think only when a proper system is in place, only then the voting turnout will be good.”

Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar says, “Apart from Bengaluru, every other state in Karnataka has had a very good turnout for the election. At present the percentage is about 72.13 per cent. But many aspects and figures have not yet been added. People could have voted with any of the 12 approved documents like driver’s license, health insurance etc or anything that has been approved by government, and not just the voter’s ID card.”