Elections embrace modern tech: Voter-friendly apps, software make elections accessible

Hyderabad: Even election procedures are not immune to advances in technology in India as they are becoming more technology-driven and app-based. The use of Information Technology (IT) is a boon in ensuring the elections are being conducted in a fair, fast and smooth manner.

Telangana elections, too, will be no exception as the state is going to use IT to optimise important processes from campaigning and counting.

Especially, in the last two decades, technology has started playing a significant role in the Indian elections through several app-based features and web portals, a few of which are being used for the first time in Telangana in the 2023 Assembly elections.

EVMs - first major leap towards technology

The process started even before the advent of smartphones when Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first introduced phase-wise in the elections between 1998 and 2001 for the purpose of casting and counting votes.

Prior to EVMs, paper ballots and a manual system of counting was the norm. The paper ballot system was vulnerable to fraudulent practices and booth capturing and the manual counting system was extremely time-consuming apart from requiring huge resources.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Telangana state electoral office, here are the major web portals, apps and software being used by the ECI and polling-related officials, the public and the political parties/candidates for the upcoming elections.

Besides the ones listed below, there are also facilities like Voter Helpline Portal and Voter Service Portal to guide general voters to properly cast their votes in their respective polling stations. Another important system is the Saksham app that helps persons with disabilities (PwD) to vote.

Election Planning Portal

The Election Planning Portal is the latest initiative taken up by the ECI. It is used by the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of all states and Union Territories, planning and zonal divisions in the ECI. Various modules in this portal include vacancy management, upcoming elections, holiday management, election planning etc.

National Grievances Services (NGS) Portal

The National Grievances Services (NGS) Portal is provided by the ECI for submitting various types of electoral rolls and election-related complaints by the public. The public can register their user IDs and submit complaints related to a specific Assembly Constituency, district and state levels.

ENCORE

The Encore application will be used for processing various types of permissions sought by the candidates or political parties, entry of candidate details, candidate affidavits, entry of two-hourly poll percentage, police-station-wise poll percentage, data entry of votes secured by each candidate, preparation of online Index Card and submission of district election officers (DEO) scrutiny report along with CEO remarks, if any.

Integrated Expenditure Monitoring Software

The state chief electoral officer Vikas Raj recently informed the public at a media conference that Integrated Expenditure Monitoring Software (IEMS) would be used in Telangana Assembly elections for the first time.

The election expenditure monitoring mechanism has been put in place in each constituency for monitoring day-to-day election expenditures incurred by the candidates. The online application of expenditure lists the expenses by candidates over public meetings, posters, banners, vehicles, and ceilings for candidate expenditure.

Suvidha App & KYC

The Suvidha App levels the playing field for all candidates. The Know Your Candidate (KYC) app enables voters to know about the history of any candidate. If any candidate has a criminal background, the affidavit filed by the candidate will be available on the portal so that voters can make informed choices.

cVIGIL Portal

The cVIGIL Portal is provided for election officials to monitor the complaints received from citizens and their disposal status organised as per each constituency by the CEO and district election officers (DEOs).

Recently, during his visit to Hyderabad, the chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar spoke at a press conference about the importance of cVIGIL mobile application to curb the use of money power and freebies during the elections.

“All that a concerned citizen needs to do is download the app and take a picture of anything unethical political event such as the distribution of liquor, money or freebies and upload it on the app. The location of the sender will be automatically registered. Within 100 minutes, the complaint will be verified but the identity of the complainant will not be disclosed. The complainant will be informed by the officials if the complaint was indeed genuine or unfounded and the action taken based on the complaint. This will greatly help in curbing the use of money power during elections.”

Service Voters Portal

The Service Voters Portal is used for processing service electors' applications submitted by the record/unit officers. Service voters are those serving in the Armed Forces of India or in similar defence systems such as CRPF, CISF, ITBP, NSG, BRO, BSF, SSB, GREF etc. After the finalisation of Form 7-A, the ERO (Electoral Registration Officer) downloads all service electors from the service voters’ portal, verifies the count and uploads it into the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) Portal for further action by the respective returning officers (ROs).

Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS)

The ETPBS facilitates the transfer of e-postal ballots to the service electors electronically. The e-PBs will be returned to their respective RO’s office through the postal department after marking the votes by the service electors.

EVM Management System – EMS 2.0

The EMS 2.0 Portal was developed for maintaining the database of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) and facilitates their monitoring at various stages during the election and non-election period.

Further, the Election Management System facilitates the first and second randomisations of EVMs/VVPATs, marking and unmarking of election petitions etc. Scanning of EVMs/VVPATs through EMS mobile apps ensures proper shifting of EVMs at various stages complying with the physical movement of EVMs/VVPATs.

Webcasting

Webcasting facilitates election machinery at ECI/CEO/DEO/RO levels for monitoring procedures at each polling station during voting. Webcasting will be done in a minimum of 50 per cent of polling stations. Apart from polling stations, webcasting will be used for monitoring field units such as Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs), Flying Squads (FSTs) etc. from the date of the announcement of the poll.

Observer Portal

The Observer Portal is specifically designed for all the observers i.e. general observer, expenditure observer, police observer and awareness observer and it starts from the date of allocation. The Observer Portal is used for communication between the observers and the commission.

Polling Personnel Randomization Software (PPRS)

Polling Personnel Randomization Software has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), state unit, Hyderabad. This software facilitates data entry of master tables and data entry of polling personnel and provides for first, second and third randomisations of polling personnel of various categories of polling officers (POs).