Drive to identify eligible differently abled voters

Bid to provide special facilities such as postal ballots

A campaign is under way ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls to identify eligible differently abled individuals who were not specially marked as Persons with Disability (PwD) voters on the final voters’ list published on January 20.

The campaign, launched at the district level by the District Collectors/District Election Officers, is being carried out with the support of the Departments of Health and Social Justice.

Election officials had flagged 1,33,005 PwD voters on the final voters’ list published on January 20. Work on the preparation of the supplementary voters’ list is in progress in the State. The present campaign was necessitated by the fact that the actual number of PwD voters could be much higher, as per the data on differently abled persons available with the Social Justice Department.

More than 2 lakh

This data are now being used to pinpoint eligible voters of voting age who can be included on the PwD voters’ list. “The campaign has already helped identify more than two lakh PwD voters,” a senior election official said. The campaign is meant to guarantee special facilities such as postal ballots to all eligible PwD voters, the official said.

An option for voluntary disclosure by an elector for inclusion in the PwD category was launched during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the State. When the rolls were updated, these voters were specially marked by the electoral registration officers.

For the convenience of voters, all 40,771 polling booths in the State will be on the ground floors of buildings. District Collectors have also been asked to provide wheelchairs and ramps at the polling booths.