EC sets up voter facilitation counters in locations that have multiple booths
To ensure people do not face any hassle in locating their polling booths in locations where more than three booths are clustered, the Election Commission has set up voter facilitation counters to assist people. This is one of the strategies adopted by the EC to deal with urban apathy and to increase voter turnout.
The voter facilitation counters will be like a help desk for people to locate their booth in the cluster.
In entire Karnataka, 3,415 locations have multiple polling booths.
Of the 14 constituencies where polling will be held on Friday, as many as 2,089 locations have more than three polling booths.
Kurma Rao M., Additional Chief Electoral Ocer (CEO), said some locations, such as schools and colleges, have multiple polling booths. “People tend to go away after seeing huge queues at the booths. Booth-level ocers (BLOs) will be deployed at the voter facilitation counters to guide voters to their booth, and ensure that they do not go away without voting,” he said.
Manoj Kumar Meena,
Chief Electoral Ocer for Karnataka, who admitted that urban apathy is a huge challenge, said all measures are being taken to ensure people do not make any excuse to not go to the polling station. “In polling booths where a big crowd gathers, we will issue tokens for a hassle-free voting experience,” he said.
QR code
To help voters navigate their way to the polling station, the Election Commission has distributed voters’ slips with QR codes in urban constituencies. Voters can scan the QR code to nd their way to the polling station. This innovative initiative was used for the rst time during the recent polls for the teachers’ constituency in Bengaluru. With this initiative, the polling percentage in Bengaluru teachers’ constituency election went up from 66% in 2020 to 86% in 2024, Mr. Meena said.
43 Assembly segments
Stating that the QR code initiative will be made available in 43 urban Assembly constituencies, including in Bengaluru, Mr. Meena said, “It is dicult to locate a polling station in urban areas, unlike in rural areas. People stay away from voting even if there is a slight disturbance. With the QR code, they can scan and navigate to the polling station easily.”
Pointing out that urban areas usually record a lower turnout, Mr. Meena said, “We have identied around 5,000 polling stations where turnout was low in previous elections. We are targeting booths that reported less than 30% voter turnout in previous elections. In BBMP limits alone, we have identied 3,000 such polling stations. We are trying to provide better facilities to improve voting percentage,” he said.
In polling booths where a big crowd gathers, we will issue tokens for a hassle-free voting experience. MANOJ KUMAR MEENA, Chief Electoral Ocer for Karnataka
Chunavana app
Assessing the needs of the public through surveys, the Election Commission has come out with the Chunavana mobile application. A Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) survey commissioned by the CEO’s oce had revealed that 25% of people, who did not vote, stayed away because they were not aware of their polling stations, 17.5% of urban voters did not vote because of long queues at polling stations, and 7.5% of urban voters did not vote because they were unaware of their candidates.
Through the Chunavana app, voters can nd out the number of people in the queue at each booth and the availability of parking slots on a real-time basis.
“The app will o¡er users polling booth location, navigation to the polling booth, candidate information, polling ocers’ details, the queue at the polling station on a real-time basis, available parking space and nearby emergency facilities,” Mr. Meena added.