Enrolment of young voters in the State has seen a huge jump in the last four months. From 7.01 lakh in the final electoral rolls published on January 5, the number of young voters has increased by 4.7 lakh. In 2018, the number of youth voters was 8.24 lakh.
Of the total 11.71 lakh young voters, 5.26 lakh are women and 181 are in the “Others’‘ category. The highest enrolment is in Belagavi district at 94,652. Bengaluru Urban follows with 61,602. The lowest enrolment is from Kodagu at 9,428, according to data from the Election Commission.
In at least 15 Assembly constituencies, the number of young voters is ranging between seven to 12,000 with the highest in Yeshwantpur (12,012) followed by Bengaluru South (9,986) and Byatarayanpura (9,304). The lowest enrolment is in C.V. Raman Nagar at 2,597 followed by Jayanagar at 2,666.
Centenarians an inspiration?
After introducing the ‘vote from home’ facility for people aged above 80 and persons with disabilities (PwDs), the EC is now using this experiment as a ‘motivational tool’ to bring young voters to the polling booths.
The ‘vote from home’ exercise has seen a good response and 49,797 persons of the total 99,529 who opted for this facility have exercised their franchise so far. On Monday, 763 teams covered 763 routes facilitating home voting of 19,335 eligible persons across the State.
While the EC has not nominated any icon, specifically to motivate young voters, officials said various programmes such as Electhon, hackathon and awareness through electoral literacy clubs were organised to encourage young voters to vote.
Selfie stands
P.S. Vastrad, State nodal officer for Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program (SVEEP) said to attract the first-time young voters, selfie stands displaying election dates and logos have been put up in all polling booths. “Young voters, especially first-time voters are all the more excited to cast their vote and we are hoping they will be inspired by the centenarians, who are exercising their franchise at their homes,” he said.
Calling upon young voters to not miss voting, Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka, said election is an opportunity for people to take part in the formation of the government that chalks out policies for the next five years. “All young voters should take it upon themselves to participate in this festival of democracy and express their choices in forming the government,” he said.
Enrollment four times a year
Previously, during the annual revisions of electoral rolls, persons who have completed 18 years of age were only allowed to register themselves as voters. Now, youngsters who have crossed the age of 17 can submit applications in advance to get enrolled. There are four qualifying dates in a year for enrolment — January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. Youngsters who have completed 17 years of age can submit an application for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls.
