Voting from home for above 85 yrs old, disabled begins today

New Delhi: People aged above 85 years and those with disabilities, who have opted for the home voting facility, will be able to cast their votes through postal ballots from Friday.

The district election offices have finalised the schedule for collecting postal ballots in assembly constituencies under their jurisdiction and will complete the exercise in the next three-four days.

Of nearly 1.84 lakh — about 1.06 lakh aged above 85 years and approximately 77,000 who have disabilities — voters who were eligible to cast votes from home, only 7,449 — 6,399 senior citizens and 1,050 PwDs — filled up the requisite form 12D and submitted it to the respective booth level officers.

"Our teams, including poll officials from the respective districts and booth-level officers, will start visiting the houses of people who have opted for the facility from Friday as per the pre-decided schedule. Candidates have also been informed about the exercise, if they wish to depute their representative to watch the process for transparency," said a senior election official. "Each district will run the exercise to collect postal ballots for three days," he added.

Another official said voting would take place in complete secrecy. A videographer will also accompany each team to capture the exercise while a police personnel will provide the security cover.

According to EC, the provision of home voting is a progressive measure aimed at empowering voters who encounter barriers to participating in the electoral process at the polling stations.

Officials said ballot papers were sent for printing immediately after the nomination process was over. Voters are being informed in advance through text messages and by BLOs of the date when the election team will visit their home.

The postal ballots will be kept in sealed boxes. They will be counted on Feb 8 before the counting of EVM votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 5,472 eligible voters filled up the form to cast votes from their respective homes.