This general elections, visually-impaired voters in Nizamabad would be handed a thick bunch of over 36-page dummy Braille ballot paper, detailing 185 candidates who are contesting for the Parliament seat. Usually, when only 15 or 20 candidates contest the elections, the Braille ballot paper is limited to two to three pages. But this year, Devnar Foundation for the Blind is facing an extraordinary situation as it has never come across a situation where it has to prepare ballot paper with the names of 185 candidates from a single constituency.
Historic election
Its founder chairman A. Saibaba Goud, who claims that he conceived the idea of ballot paper and EVM unit stickers in Braille script in 2004 to help people with visual impairment cast vote on their own, terms the Nizamabad Lok Sabha election as historic.
“We are used to preparing the Braille ballot paper with 15 to 16 names. But this time, we are happy to be a part of this challenging task,” said Dr. Saibaba.
Explaining their work, he said the Braille ballot paper comprises EVM unit number, serial numbers, candidate’s name, and the name of the candidate’s party symbol.
They also print stickers of EVM unit numbers and each EVM has the capacity to accommodate 16 names. So, if 40 people are contesting from one constituency, three EVMs would be used, and they would be termed unit 1, 2 and 3. Besides, stickers of serial numbers in Braille would be pasted on the EVMs.
When the visually-impaired go to a polling station to cast their vote, the dummy Braille ballot paper would also be given to them. They would know the EVM unit number in which their candidate’s name is listed and the serial number to which they have to vote. Since 185 candidates are contesting in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, the ballot paper bunch would be thick. Also, in case of Nizamabad constituency, the names of the contestants would be printed in Telugu, English and Urdu.
The Deputy Chief Electoral Officer of Telangana, B. Shailaja, said the contract to print dummy Braille ballot paper and stickers for this year’s elections has been given to the Devnar Foundation for the Blind.
The staff at the foundation began working on the ballet paper soon after receiving the names of the contestants on Sunday. On Wednesday too, they were racing against time to prepare the ballot paper.
Dr. Saibaba said since they have to hand over the papers and stickers to the State election authorities by April 8, they have appointed more people to complete the job on time.
