Kerala: Dummy ballots for visually-impaired

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over a lakh visually-impaired voters in the state will be able to cast their votes without any assistance with the election commission introducing dummy ballot papers in all 20 constituencies. The chief electoral officer is implementing the initiative with the help of the Kerala Federation of the Blind in the state. Thousands of dummy ballot papers in Braille have been printed to be used in around 25,000 polling stations.

“It would be a boon for over a lakh visually- impaired voters. This is the first time the election commission has decided to make available dummy ballot papers in Braille. Usually, the visually-impaired are accompanied by somebody and they have no clue on what’s happening. This time the dummy ballot paper will help them know the name of the candidates and the sign of the party whom they want to vote.

The person would be able to cast vote after going through the dummy ballot which would display the parties and candidates in the same order as that of the voting machine,” said Sasidharan Pillai, Kerala Federation of the Blind.

He said that the number of dummy ballot sheets is more in constituencies with more number of candidates. “In Wayanad, there are around 20 candidates and we had to print around four sheets. We have printed around 70,000 sheets of Braille ballot papers and awareness programmes are being organised for the visually-impaired voters by the respective district administration,” said Mr Sasidharan.