The demographic and biometric information of an individual stored in a card contains a 12-digit unique identity number and issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is called the Aadhaar card. It is one of the most important identity documents in India. Recently a news has been reported that a remote voting facility might be launched in 2024 stated by the CEC. In New Delhi, on Saturday, Sunil Arora, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) passed his remarks by saying that sometimes many people are not able to pay a visit to the polling station to cast their vote because of some issues or crises, that why the Government is planning to launch a “remote voting” facility in 2024 for those individuals. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Election, franchisees will be able to exercise their rights from a remote area, with the first pilot project expected to begin in the next 2-3 months. This facility will help many of the residents to cast their votes by the remote voting facility.
Mr. Arora said while he was addressing at the Sansad Ratna Awards 2021 event, which was held on Saturday said that a team and the expert have come from the department of IIT Chennai and currently they are working on the process of remote voting or we can say blockchain voting. Arora further added that the workers are completing their work in a proper way and he said that they are willing to see the first project within 2-3 months. NRI voting is another significant long-term electoral reform that the CEC, which is retiring next month, aims to introduce in the next six or might be in a year. The CEC said the commission would hold a seminar with the stakeholder regarding the modalities, as suggested by the external affairs ministry, to amend the rules to enable NRIs to vote by e-mail ballot.
As previously an order was passed by the government that the residents have to connect their Aadhaar with many other documents like PAN card, Ration card, and the voter ID as well.
Mr. Arora also praised the law minister’s recent statement that the government was considering the European Commission’s proposal to connect Aadhaar with the EPIC voter card, noting that this would eliminate the need for multiple cards to recognize voters at the polling booth. In an interview, which was taken by the time of India, Arora said regarding the remote voting system, that the European Commission’s had done a lot of promotion on bigger incorporation so that in an election no one will be left to cast their vote. As nowadays, technology has been updated a lot.
The European Commission (EC) began a research project early this year to allow remote voting for those who are not able to cast their vote on the election day such as students, patients, professionals, migrant workers, and critical service providers, using technology as a great enabler. It’s important to note that the project isn’t aimed at internet voting, nor does it enable people to vote from their homes. Transparency and secrecy of voting are also driving factors for the commission,” he said, adding that before the facility is rolled out, there will be process improvements and broader discussions with all stakeholders, including political parties.