Over five lakh apply for voter enrolment after publication of final electoral rolls in 18 districts
After the publication of the final electoral rolls for 2024 on January 22 till March 25 (the last date for enrolling), over five lakh people have submitted applications for voter registration in the 18 districts that go to poll on April 26.
As per ECI rules, eligible unregistered electors had time to update the electoral rolls till ten days before the last day of filing nominations. With April 4 being the last date for filing nominations in 18 districts, Monday was the last date.
According to data from the Election Commission, of the over 5 lakh applications received, 3.15 lakh have been accepted for registration in these districts.
Not more than 38,000 of these applications have been rejected on grounds of incomplete entries (where proper documents/ photographs have not been uploaded/enclosed) and duplicate entries, an official said.
In these districts, the highest number of applications have been received in Bengaluru Urban (1.16 lakh) while the lowest is in Kodagu at 6,700. Over 99% of the total applications in these districts were submitted online.
As per the revised final electoral rolls for 2024, published on January 22, Karnataka has 5.38 crore voters, including 2.68 crore women and 4,920 in the others’ category. “This number of total voters may slightly change following the update. The total number of voters had increased by 4.08 lakh since the publication of the draft electoral rolls on October 27, 2023,” the official said.
Remaining districts
In the remaining 16 districts that go to poll on May 7, people have time to update till April 9 (which is ten days before April 19, the last day of filing nominations for that phase). So far, over 3.2 lakh have submitted applications in these districts of which 2.21 lakh have been accepted for update. Overall, 54,000 of the new applicants in all the 31 districts are firsttime voters, who will turn 18 years old on April 1, the official said.
Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer, told The Hindu that the Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) for all the newlyadded voters will also be printed and distributed before the date of polling.
In the 16 districts, people can submit applications online using the Voters Service Portal (https://voters.eci.gov.in) or the Voter Helpline Mobile App for inclusion of their name in the rolls, he said.
For any information regarding electoral rolls, EPICs, and submission of applications, individuals may contact the respective District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, and BoothlLvel Officers. They can also contact the toll free number 1950 (180042551950), he added.