The procedure of enrolling in the electoral rolls has become easier. Citizens do not need to go through along official process, Karnataka’s chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Meena said at an event on Tuesday.
“Citizens from any part of the country could enroll themselves through the National Voter’s Service Portal, we do intense revision of the list twice in a year. So, I request you all to get enrolled and check if your name is enlisted,” he added.
P.S. Vastrad, former election commissioner, informed The Observer: “Elections are important for democracy. We need people to enroll themselves as a primary step. Voting comes later. The process is quite simple especially with our app Voter Helpline Portal.
“Even if people have a card, that doesn’t serve the purpose. They need to make sure that they are enlisted in the electoral rolls,” he added.
Suresh V. Nadagoudar, dean of the University Law College, the venue of the event, informed The Observer: “Many youngsters are unaware of the electoral enrollment process. In addition to the awareness programme, we’ll have a training session.”
The event, attended by students and faculty of Bangalore University, emphasized on the importance of participating in the electoral process.
Arsalan Zaidi, a student and coordinator of the event, said: “We have people from 200 colleges joining us. We need to make our juniors who have just turned 18 aware of how important it is to enroll themselves in the electoral rolls.”
Nagendra Kumar, 18, said: “I don’t know anything about the voting process. I want to know how it works. I plan to enroll myself before the upcoming elections.”
Shilpa A , 19, said: “I don’t have a voter ID card. I haven’t yet enrolled myself in the electoral rolls and am not sure how the process works.”
According to data shared by the Election Commission, 10-12% young adults in Karnataka are yet to enroll themselves in the rolls.
Kavya Hebbar, a professor at the Law College, said: “As people who work in the field of law, it is our responsibility to make others aware of these fundamental processes. Every vote counts in a democracy. With this, we expect to see a change.”
T. Sripathi, head of the electronic media department, said: “Our youngsters are skeptical about voting. We need to make them active participants in the election process.”
Kavana N.K., a law student said: “It’s not important if you’re interested in the candidate or not, but you need to be responsible enough to understand that voting is important to retain a democratic set-up in the country.”
The awareness programme was conducted ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. Citizens aged 18 and above can enroll themselves by March 31, 2023. Those who are 17 have a provision to choose advance enrollment. The final electoral rolls will be published ahead of the election. According to the data by BBMP, 91 lakh citizens have enrolled themselves.
