EC's pilot project for phone-based e-voting system to be tried in Khammam
Khamman: The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC), which is making efforts to develop the country's first smartphone based e-voting system as an alternative to the postal ballots, has selected Khammam Municipal Corporation for the pilot project.
The TSEC would conduct the mock polling on e-voting on October 20 with a set of 10,000 voters. Government employees are being encouraged to participate in the e-voting. Students and other interested persons can also get involved in the pilot project.
Khammam municipal commissioner Adarsh Surabhi said, "The registration for e-voting pilot project commenced on Friday and would end on October 18. Those who registered their names for the e-voting can participate in the mock-voting through their smartphone by using the TSEC App."
The Election Commission is not connected with the exercise. The e-voting app was being developed as an alternative to postal votes, and was not extended to general voting.
The motto behind the project is, ‘No voter is left behind’; and enable all the service voters to avail the e-voting system.
To make the postal ballot system simple, the TSEC mooted the idea of e-voting for the service voters. In the pilot project, the voters should download the App from Google play store. They should register their name in advance and give the EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) number and later the Aadhar number. They should snap a self-pix of them by online and post it to the App. The software in the App checks all the details and gives the status. If the details are mismatched, the application will be rejected.
Their name will then be registered in the App and they can use their franchise in the mock polling conducted on October 20. A mock ballot paper is also available in the App with free symbols (to be allotted to independents) and mock names. NOTA facility is also present in the ballot paper.
The postal ballot is a facility to the service voters – those in the armed forces, police department and employees involved in election duties to exercise their franchise in advance or from distant places of work. This could eventually replace the postal ballot system, wherein the ballot papers are sent to such voters by post and get it back by post, to be counted along with the ballots polled in an election.
The service voter should apply for a postal ballot through his department and get it. The percentage of postal ballots in local body elections is very less.
