The poll process will be disabled-friendly this time, with the use of more ramps and Braille-enabled voting machines.
Kerala, where women voters outnumber male, can look forward to women-friendly polling stations being tried out for the first time.
At these polling stations, all polling officials and security personnel will be women.
Model polling stations which will have drinking water, electricity, toilets, chairs, covered roofs for those standing in queue, rest rooms, and feeding rooms are also being set up.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the administration is working out the modalities to make available wheelchairs for the needy.
The administration is also working towards ensuring that the 4,400 undergoing palliative care treatment in the district reach the polling booth and cast their votes.
Elderly
Making polling booths accessible to the elderly and the disabled voters is part of the Election Commission’s mission to increase the voter turnout.
‘‘The aim is cent per cent turnout. Through a series of steps, we are hoping to cross the 80 per cent mark,’’ District Collector Biju Prabhakar said.
The district administration is using the ongoing initiative to provide barrier-free environment in government offices and schools to make polling booths disabled-friendly.
The Social Justice and Local Self-Government Departments have also been roped in.
The Government Guest House at Thycaud, where the offices of the Election Observers in the district are housed, has been provided with a ramp.
“Temporary ramps will be constructed in 180 polling stations,” he said.
Other districts are also moving on similar lines.
For facilitating the visually impaired voters, a numeric sticker in Braille denoting the serial numbers of candidates will be pasted on the EVMs.
Copies of dummy ballot sheet in Braille will be used to sensitise such voters.
More ramps to be
provided for the disabled
Wheelchairs to be
made available
