Voters wade through list as `search' function unavailable
Pune:
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For the last two days, Kharadi resident Satrupa Tikar has been trying to find her name on the voters' list on the PMC website. With no search functionality on the website, she has been painstakingly, and fruitlessly, scrolling through all the names. There are over 26 lakh voters.Tikar is one among the many voters who faced similar problems.
These hurdles dampen the voters' enthusiasm and could affect the election commission's target of 70% tur nout, feels Kondhwa voter M N Singh. “While the PMC is addressing the confusion on how to vote with demo EVMs in various societies, they should have made the website citizen friendly with a search facility for the final voter list,“ he said.
The search facility, or the lack thereof, is just one of the issues. The division of voters with new sequence numbers is another problem, as voters now having to check the new numbers. As per PMC election officials, the voter list has been divided with 750-800 names per polling booth, and so the sequence has changed.However, they are working on providing new software to voters help find their names according to polling booths, by Friday.
“We have received several complaints on voters not being able to find names in the voter list. We are in talks with a software company to help us update the website so that a voter, by just entering hisher name would be able to find the name of the polling booth as well. We will also be distributing the slips,“ said an election official.
In the coming days, a toll free number, 18001030222, will also be dedicated to this purpose, officials added.
In many areas, citizens have made beelines to election officials as they have not received voter slips, and are unable to find their names on the list.They have raised questions about why the authorities are scrambling to address these problems in the 11th hour.“The summary voters' list was already there. The facilities should have been made available earlier, rather than be introduced just five days ahead of the elections,“ said Manali Rao, a teacher who too failed to find her name on the website.
Chandrakant Bhujbal from the Political Research and Analysis Bureau has pointed out that in some panels, the updated voters' list has not been put up. “Our analysis shows that Panels No. 24, 25 and 26 do not have the updated list put up on the PMC website, which is posing a problem to the voters.“
Election officials said the names were forward to the PMC election officials from the returning officer's office, and that it should be updated by Friday.
Political Research and Analysis Bureau
These hurdles dampen the voters' enthusiasm and could affect the election commission's target of 70% tur nout, feels Kondhwa voter M N Singh. “While the PMC is addressing the confusion on how to vote with demo EVMs in various societies, they should have made the website citizen friendly with a search facility for the final voter list,“ he said.
The search facility, or the lack thereof, is just one of the issues. The division of voters with new sequence numbers is another problem, as voters now having to check the new numbers. As per PMC election officials, the voter list has been divided with 750-800 names per polling booth, and so the sequence has changed.However, they are working on providing new software to voters help find their names according to polling booths, by Friday.
“We have received several complaints on voters not being able to find names in the voter list. We are in talks with a software company to help us update the website so that a voter, by just entering hisher name would be able to find the name of the polling booth as well. We will also be distributing the slips,“ said an election official.
In the coming days, a toll free number, 18001030222, will also be dedicated to this purpose, officials added.
In many areas, citizens have made beelines to election officials as they have not received voter slips, and are unable to find their names on the list.They have raised questions about why the authorities are scrambling to address these problems in the 11th hour.“The summary voters' list was already there. The facilities should have been made available earlier, rather than be introduced just five days ahead of the elections,“ said Manali Rao, a teacher who too failed to find her name on the website.
Chandrakant Bhujbal from the Political Research and Analysis Bureau has pointed out that in some panels, the updated voters' list has not been put up. “Our analysis shows that Panels No. 24, 25 and 26 do not have the updated list put up on the PMC website, which is posing a problem to the voters.“
Election officials said the names were forward to the PMC election officials from the returning officer's office, and that it should be updated by Friday.
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