A total of 3,773 people aged above 80 and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in Bengaluru exercised their franchise from the comforts of their home on Saturday. The consolidated number of the “vote from home” exercise on day one from across the State is still not available.
As many as 99,529 electors across the State have opted to vote from home in the Assembly elections. These include 80,250 people aged above 80 and 19,279 PwDs. The window for opting the facility closed on April 17. And, polling under the facility that began on April 29 will go on till May 6.
For the first time, the Election Commission has introduced the vote-from-home facility for people aged above 80 and PwDs if they are unable to go out to exercise their franchise. The facility was made available for the 12.15 lakh people aged above 80 (including 16,976 centenarians), and 5.71 lakh benchmarked PwDs in the Assembly elections in Karnataka.
In Bengaluru, there are 2,35,140 electors aged above 80 and of these 9,152 have registered to vote from home. There are 26,058 PwDs and of these 119 have registered to vote from home. The 3,773 who voted from home in Bengaluru on Saturday comprised 3,727 senior citizens and 46 PwDs, according to a release.
A polling team consisting of two polling officers, a security guard and a videographer will go to the voter’s house and check the voter ID card. After that, the elector is allowed to exercise secret ballot vote and the entire process is videographed for transparency.
“Polling staff will visit each elector’s house twice with ballot papers and ballot boxes with prior information. If the person is not available at home the first time, the officials will go the second time, which will be the last. Those who have registered for voting from home in Form 12D are not allowed to come to the polling station and vote,” the release added.
