Over 15 lakh ‘virgin voters’ set to exercise franchise in Karnataka polls

A total of 15.42 lakh young men and women aged between 18 and 19 across Karnataka have enrolled in the electoral rolls to exercise their franchise for the first time in the upcoming the State Legislative Assembly.

The number of virgin voters or first time voters this time is less compared to 2013 Karnataka assembly polls wherein a total of 35.58 lakh youngsters had got enrolled.
This time, of the 15,42,121 first time voters 7,72,649 were enrolled during the current special summary revision. Of these, 2,743 were born in 2000, according to the final (tentative) 2018 rolls.

Revealing these statistics, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka Sanjiv Kumar told presspersons in Bengaluru on Saturday that a special communication drive had been taken up to reach out to young voters and women voters. 

The final electoral rolls will be published on February 28 and the number of voters stands at 4.96 crore for now. The Bangalore South Assembly constituency has the highest number of voters in the state at 5.01 lakh, whereas Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district has the lowest with just 1.62 lakh voters.

In a first, the Election Commission will set up all-women polling stations in Assembly constituencies where population of women is high. "All personnel in these polling stations will be women," Kumar said. The voter gender ratio is now 973 women for 1,000 men and it is improving, he added.

Accessibility is the theme of the 2018 elections and the office of the chief electoral officer is working with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) to launch a special drive and identify voters who are persons with disabilities. "The DWCD has details of 12 lakh persons with disabilities. Suitable polling stations are being identified for them," Kumar said.

He stressed that voters can apply to be added to the electoral rolls even after they are published on February 28. "It's a misconception that addition, deletion or modification cannot happen after final rolls are published. Electoral roll revision is a continuous process," he said.

As many as 30.41 lakh applications have been received under the special summary revision, of which 17.12 lakh were for addition and 10.41 lakh for deletion. "No summary deletion is taking place this time like it happened in 2013 when 16 lakh names were deleted. So far, we have deleted 10.13 lakh voters, of whom 3.67 lakh are dead," he said. Kumar also launched a logo for the 2018 Assembly polls whose tagline is 'Inclusive, Accessible and Ethical'.

He said complaints pertaining to inclusion of immigrants in the electoral rolls were highest in the Bengaluru municipal limits. "We are discussing this closely with all political parties," he said. The Election Commission has asked all parties to appoint booth-level agents to monitor the process of roll revision.