Nearly 12 lakh senior citizens and persons with disabilities eligible to vote from home in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Over 5.7 lakh seniors and 6.13 lakh persons with disabilities can vote from home in Karnataka during lok sabha elections.

Over 5.7 lakh senior citizens aged 85 and above and 6.13 lakh people with disabilities (PwD) in the State can opt to vote from home (VfH) during the Lok Sabha election.

Officials from the Election Commission have started the process of distributing Form 12D  through which eligible vote-from-home electors can inform the Assistant Returning Officer that he or she is not in a position to go to the polling station to vote. Interested electors can give their consent in the form within five days after the poll notification is issued (March 28 for the first phase) in Karnataka. People can also download the form from the EC’s website (https://www.eci,gov,in), fill it up and submit it to their jurisdictional Returning Officer’s office within the prescribed window, officials said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) for the first time made available the facility of VfH for those aged above 80 and certified persons with disabilities (whose disability is not less than 40% of the prescribed handicap) during the pandemic in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections.

In the 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, around one lakh people voted from home. Nearly 95% (76,120) of the 80,251 senior citizens (who had opted) and over 97% (18,811) of the 19,280 PwDs (who had opted) voted from home. 

According to data from the Election Commission, Dakshina Kannada had recorded the highest number of senior citizens who voted from home (10,280) followed by Belagavi (6,975) and Tumakuru (6,333). In the PwD category, Tumakuru recorded the highest (2,788) followed by Dakshina Kannada (1,926) and Belagavi (1,661).

Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka, said it is an optional facility for those who cannot go to the polling booth and vote. “It will always be good to vote at polling stations and take part in the festival of democracy but if a person is not in a position to walk or he she choose to vote from home then this facility has been provided,” he said.

He said two polling officials, accompanied by a videographer and a security person, would visit the electors’ home and enable them to vote in a postal ballot. The electors would be informed in advance about the date and approximate time of the visit of election officials by an SMS to the mobile number mentioned in the application, he said. “If they prefer to go to the polling booths, the officials will also make necessary arrangements for them to vote in person,” he explained.