ECI calls all-party meeting to demonstrate remote voting tech for domestic migrants

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has developed a prototype to enable remote voting for migrant workers and students and called an all-party meeting on January 16 to demonstrate the technology designed to address low voter turnout and to seek feedback.

In a statement on Thursday, the ECI said it has explored the option of using a modified version of the time-tested model of M3 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to enable voting at polling stations outside the home constituencies of migrants. “The migrant voter would thus need not travel back to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise of voting,” it said.

The ECI has invited representatives of eight recognised national and 57 state political parties for the demonstration. “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,” the statement said.

Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the idea was to address the main causes for low voter turnout — urban, youth apathy, and the inability of migrants to vote. “The commission has begun programmes to address urban and youth apathy...this [the new technology is for] domestic migrants.”

The ECI said it was ready to pilot multi-constituency remote voting for domestic migrants from their places of residence. “This modified form of EVM can handle up to 72 multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth,” the statement said.

The ECI has asked political parties to submit views by January 31 on issues related to changes required in legislation and administrative procedures for remote voting. “Based on the feedback received from various stakeholders and demonstration of the prototype, the Commission will appropriately carry forward the process of implementing [the] remote voting method.”

In 2020, the ECI set up a four-member panel of experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Informatics Centre to assess the technology to enable remote voting. The panel presented a concept plan for the dependence on technology in the conduct of elections.