Same household, different polling booths: Here’s why

Sometimes members of the same household are enrolled in separate voter lists, and have to go to different polling booths to vote. Confirm the polling booth of your family members online, to avoid confusion

Gospel of Matthew 12:25, KJV:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto him, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

The polling booth where you cast your vote, corresponds to a specific geographic area called a ‘part’. Each parliamentary and assembly constituency is divided into several parts, and the structure of a part is the same for both.

A part should be formed in a way that the polling booth is within the walkable distance of two kilometres for all voters. For example, a booth in the Gir Forests has only one voter.

As per guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the number of voters in a part should not exceed 1400 in urban areas, and 1200 in rural areas. Before 2014, this limit was 1200 and 1000 respectively.

Hence, in Bengaluru, the area covered by a part should have less than two kilometre radius, and a maximum of 1400 voters. If there are more than 1400 voters in a part, an auxiliary booth should be set up for the voters in excess.

Excess voters means low voting percent

When a part has more than about 1400 voters, voter turnout percent tends to be lower. This is because each EVM has the capacity to register only 2000 votes. So, if a booth has more than 2000 voters, some are technically disenfranchised.

If your part has more than 1400 voters, please raise the issue with the Chief Electoral Officer and demand auxiliary booths in the part. The number of voters in your part will be mentioned on the first and last pages of the electoral rolls, such as in this example. Electoral rolls for all parts in Bengaluru are available here. (ECI sites may be occasionally down in the election season, so if the sites don’t open immediately, try again.)

One household, multiple booths

Earlier, in Bangalore, about 30 percent of parts used to have more than 1400 voters, but such cases are rare now. The number of parts in most constituencies have been increased, and voters distributed. This exercise is called delimitation.

However, during delimitation as well as new registration, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have not respected geographic boundaries while assigning parts to voters. EROs have to enrol voters according to the guidelines in the ERO Handbook, issued by ECI. But in practice, the data entry clerks working on contract basis are often the ones who assign parts to voters, and EROs approve these entries indiscriminately.

Hence, in several cases, members of the same family, living in one house, are assigned to different parts. For example, my nephew and his wife are in different parts. My daughter’s father-in-law and mother-in-law are in different parts. Sometimes, immediate neighbours are in different parts.

If you do not find the names of your family members in the voters’ list of your part, do not assume that they are not in the electoral rolls. They could be in some other part, and may have to visit a different booth to cast their votes. You can search their names in the NVSP or CEO Karnataka website to identify their part/booth.

Comments:

  1. S.chandramohan. says:

    I am not in the voters list
    , Though I am residing in the same place for over20 years
    But my other family members are in the voters list
    Why I was included in the obituary list ?

  2. Brahmanyan says:

    It is ages since physical checkup of voters have been done by the EC. For instance in our road, many residents have left and new people have occupied the houses. Even old Buildings were demolished and new Flats have come up. But the voters list remains the same for years.Many people registered new in response to EC advertisements are waiting for their Voters identity cards.
    The Election Process itself is taking more than a month. I wish the next Government which occupies power in Center take interest to reform the entire process of Electoral System in our Country.

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