Of voter’s list, voting booths and preferential voting

by June 7, 2012 Governance

So Sunday is the election day for the graduate constituency MLC. Here’s a guide to voting booths and how to find your name in the electoral rolls.

How can I find my name in electoral roll?
Here is the final voter roll published in the website of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka: http://164.100.80.163/Teachers_Grd/a1.html

Where are the voting booths?
The names of all voters and their respective voting booths are available at http://ashwinmahesh.in/mlcvote.htm. (Lok Satta compiled this list with data from CEO office.) In another tool http://mlc2012.herokuapp.com/, on entering your name, you can get the address and map to your booth.

What is preferential voting?
In the preferential voting system, voters should rank candidates in their order of preference. You have to put ‘1′ against the name of the candidate you prefer most (this vote is called first preference vote), ‘2′ against the name of next preferred candidate and so on. Ballot paper will have only names of candidates and not party symbols.

Sample ballot paper. Courtesy BJP

You need to carry any government recognised ID card while going to vote – it is not mandatory to carry the voter ID card.

During counting, if a single candidate gets more than 51% of the first preference votes, he is elected directly. If there is no such candidate, another system is used. The least competent candidates – those who get the lowest number of first preference votes – are removed one by one.

When one candidate is removed, all the first preference votes he got, is transferred to the candidate who was ranked second by voters in those ballot papers. Candidates are eliminated this way until one winner emerges. It is not mandatory for voters to rank all candidates. If you want to give your vote to one candidate alone, you can rank him/her as ‘1′, and not rank anyone else. In that case, if your candidate is not elected, your vote will not go to any other candidate.

Voting is on Sunday, June 10th, between 8 am and 4 pm. The counting starts on June 13th and will be completed by 15th.

⊕

Sections:

About Navya P K

Navya PK is a freelance journalist based in Kerala. She covers stories on environment, health and human rights. She has previously worked with Citizen Matters, Deccan Herald and The New Indian Express.
Read more by Navya P K

Comments:

  1. jyothi s says:
    September 30, 2012 at 2:17 am

    sir i have registered my name in the list but nor i got my voter card nor i have my name in the list why our indian govertment is so careless about fresher’s in future it will affect our life so atleast get our voter id it is 3times i have applied

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Confusing forms, tight deadlines: Inside the flawed SIR process

by December 1, 2025 Governance
Enumeration deadline extended to Dec 11th; as Chennai voters and BLOs race to wrap up, we give you a lowdown on the process.

In Chennai’s Perumbakkam resettlement site, residents working as domestic workers leave home at 9 am and return only after 6 pm. For them, the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) seems almost impossible to navigate. A community worker from the area observes that in earlier voter roll verifications, households received a simple part-number booklet. Now, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) set up camps instead of going door-to-door, asking residents to collect the forms themselves. The new form asks for additional details such as parents’ voter IDs, which many residents do not know, she adds. With low literacy levels,…

Continue reading

Similar Story

Accessibility in crisis: Climate disasters expose neglect of persons with disabilities

by November 17, 2025 Governance
Heatwaves and floods in Chennai show how disaster systems and policies fail persons with disabilities, stressing the need for true inclusion.

On a normal day, fatigue is a persistent challenge for Smitha Sadasivan, Senior Adviser at the Disability Rights India Foundation and a person living with Multiple Sclerosis. Yet, it is manageable with rest periods, nutritional supplements, hydration, and some mild activity. But heatwaves worsen her symptoms. "During heatwaves, none of these measures help. Only limited nutrition and hydration offer some relief,” says Smitha. Extreme climate events, such as heatwaves, floods, or cyclones, pose problems for everyone. Yet for people with disabilities, the challenges are far greater, as daily barriers to safety and mobility become worse during such crises. Smitha explains…

Continue reading