Now, all the 17-plus old youngsters can apply in advance to get themselves enrolled as voters, instead of waiting to attain the age of 18 years on January 1 of a year.
“Election Commission of India (ECI), led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, have directed the CEOs, EROs, and AEROs of all States to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates — April 1, July 1, and October 1, and not just January 1,” said Punjab Chief electoral officer Dr S Karuna Raju.
Dr Raju said that henceforth, the electoral roll will be updated every quarter and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which he or she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years. After getting registered, he or she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC).
For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1, and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll, he added.
The Election Commission of India, in pursuance of the legal amendments in Section 14(b) of the RP Act 1950 and consequent modifications in Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, has initiated the process for bringing about necessary changes for the preparation or revision of electoral roll of assembly or parliamentary constituency.
Notably, on ECI’s recommendations, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice recently amended the RP Act to provide for four qualifying dates — January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 as eligibility for youngsters to register in electoral rolls as opposed to the earlier single qualifying date of January 1 only.
The Commission has also made the registration forms more user-friendly and simpler, which will come into force on August 1, 2022. All applications (claims and objections), in old forms, received before August 1, 2022, will be processed and disposed of and in such cases, there is no need to file application in new forms.
As part of Annual Summary Revision, polling stations, having more than 1,500 electors, shall be rationalized or modified as per given schedule and before the draft publication of electoral rolls in accordance with instructions contained in Manual on Polling Station, 2020. A new Polling Station shall be created only after rationalizing the sections to the adjacent polling stations to the possible extent. Other objectives of rationalization of polling stations are to group all the family members and neighbours in a section.
For linking of AADHAR number with electoral roll data, provision has been made in the modified registration forms to seek Aadhaar details of electors. A new Form-6B has also been introduced for collecting Aadhaar number of existing electors. However, no application for inclusion of name in electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar Number.
A time-bound drive is being started from August 1, 2022, for collection of Aadhaar number of the existing electors. Furnishing of Aadhaar number is purely voluntary.
Detailed procedure of deletion of repeat or multiple entries has been specified. In repeated or multiple entries reported by individual citizens, BLAs of political parties or RWA representatives, field verification is mandatorily done in each and every case. Name of the elector would be deleted in the electoral roll only at the place where he or she is not found to be ordinarily residing.