15 lakh teens will vote for 1st time in Assembly elections

As many as 15,42,121 teens, aged between 18 and 19, have registered to vote in the upcoming Assembly polls.

The number of young voters born after January 1, 1999 registered to vote this time is more than double the number of first-time voters in the 2013 Assembly elections, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said Saturday. "Of the 15.42 lakh young voters, 7.72 lakh have been enrolled in the ongoing special summary revision of electoral rolls," he said.

The final electoral rolls will be published on February 28 and the number of voters stands at 4.96 crore for now. The Bangalore South Assembly constituency has the highest number of voters in the state at 5.01 lakh, whereas Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district has the lowest with just 1.62 lakh voters.

In a first, the Election Commission will set up all-women polling stations in Assembly constituencies where population of women is high. "All personnel in these polling stations will be women," Kumar said. The voter gender ratio is now 973 women for 1,000 men and it is improving, he added.

Accessibility is the theme of the 2018 elections and the office of the chief electoral officer is working with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) to launch a special drive and identify voters who are persons with disabilities. "The DWCD has details of 12 lakh persons with disabilities. Suitable polling stations are being identified for them," Kumar said.

He stressed that voters can apply to be added to the electoral rolls even after they are published on February 28. "It's a misconception that addition, deletion or modification cannot happen after final rolls are published. Electoral roll revision is a continuous process," he said.

As many as 30.41 lakh applications have been received under the special summary revision, of which 17.12 lakh were for addition and 10.41 lakh for deletion. "No summary deletion is taking place this time like it happened in 2013 when 16 lakh names were deleted. So far, we have deleted 10.13 lakh voters, of whom 3.67 lakh are dead," he said. Kumar also launched a logo for the 2018 Assembly polls whose tagline is 'Inclusive, Accessible and Ethical'.

He said complaints pertaining to inclusion of immigrants in the electoral rolls were highest in the Bengaluru municipal limits. "We are discussing this closely with all political parties," he said. The Election Commission has asked all parties to appoint booth-level agents to monitor the process of roll revision.