Goa officials to get voter update every half an hour

The Goa electoral office will introduce a real-time voters’ turnout system during the Lok Sabha elections to send data to designated officers every half an hour with the help of a coded SMS alert system. Earlier, such data was sent every hour only.

The system is aimed at more effective supervision through booth-level officials, Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer Keshav Chandra said here on Sunday.

Goa was the first State to successfully conduct a pilot project on poll monitoring in the last Assembly elections. Under the system, photos and fingerprints of voters were captured at booths before they cast their votes.

Mr. Chandra ruled out continuing the ‘poll monitoring system’ this time.

Allaying apprehensions that the real-time voters’ turnout system may not work given that most polling stations are located in remote areas with no mobile connectivity, election official Y. Durga Prasad said the problem would be overcome by the booth-level officials, by taking the help of a “runner” who would come to the nearest place of connectivity and send the SMS to the designated officer.

Joint Chief Electoral Officer Naryana Navti said Goa would adopt the communication plan for election proposed by the EC, aimed at creating a database of mobile numbers of officials deployed so that the poll panel could reach them quickly in case of technical problems like breakdown of electronic voting machines.