According to sources, in the meeting held last week with MEA, the EC is learned to have proposed that a designated officer in the Indian mission download the ballot paper on the voter’s behalf and hand it over. The overseas elector can then mark her preference at the mission, get the self-declaration form attested by the designated officers and hand back the ballot paper and declaration form in a sealed envelope to the mission, which will then dispatch all the envelopes to the election officer concerned.
As first reported by The Indian Express on December 1, the EC approached the Law Ministry last month to permit NRIs to cast their votes overseas through postal ballots. The Commission told the government that it had received representations from the Indian diaspora about facilitating voting through postal votes since travelling to India for elections was a “costly affair”.
Explained: Your voter card on phone? Here’s what EC wants to do
Digital Voter ID card: Currently, the Elector s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) is only available in hard copy, and has to be produced in the original by the voter on election day. What is the proposal being considered by the poll panel? Written by Ritika Chopra , Edited by Explained Desk | New Delhi | Updated: December 18, 2020 2:56:59 pm
In this file photo, woman voters can be seen displaying their identity cards as they wait in a queue to cast their votes for Maharashtra Assembly polls, in Sangli. (PTI Photo/Oct 21, 2019)
The Election Commission (EC) is keen to make the Elector’s Photo Identity Card or EPIC available in electronic form. In other words, you could soon carry your Voter ID Card on your phone just like an electronic boarding pass that is downloadable ahead of a journey by air.