Voter lists - issues and possible fraud

Again, funnily, I learnt just a while back that the entries marked "Deleted" was allegedly a handiwork of the local corporator(Ward no. 32) in Mysore.

Find out about his antecedents. The subversion of the democracy is done by every damn politcal party. :(

Dear friends,

Greetings to you all!

At the outset let me make it clear that i am not trying to defend those govt officials (including me!) who are/were responsible for the deletion of names of the genuine voters. I fully recognise the agony and disappointment of the voters when they can’t vote. I am also aware of the other consequences of denial of vote in a democracy like ours.

I just want to bring before you the different aspects involved in this 'deletion of votes'. Kindly have an open mind when you read further. THIS IS WRITTEN IN THE INTEREST OF BRINGING IMPROVED AWARENESS IN THE GENERAL PUBLIC AND IS NOT DIRECTED AGAINST ANY INDIVIDUAL/S, POLITICAL PARTY/TIES OR ANYONE REMOTELY INVOLVED IN THE ELECTROL PROCESS.

The revision of the roll is done by the district administration under the orders of the ECI. The district administration doubles as Election administration also. (It is like the Geography teacher taking Geology; can manage it, but doesn’t have the expertise!)

As mentioned, the district administration is not an expert in data management, but it manages a database of 21 lakh voters (records), having 10-15 fields!  Apart from this, the district admn also allows for 'continuous updation' of the Rolls, as and when the citizens apply for addition/deletion, thru the Taluka office/corporation offices.

The Roll registration officer for the city is the Commissioner of the MCC, while for the rural areas it is the Tahsildar.  The officers have to appoint one official per booth, called the Booth level Official (BLO). This has been the recent initiative by the ECI. Earlier we had one official for 3-4 booths!

At the field level there are inefficiencies, as in the case of any huge organisation. The BLOs are normally primary school teachers, water man, bill collector etc. At that level they do not realise the importance of the roll completely.  As we all know, quite a number of them are also inefficient, demotivated and do not take the job seriously. Thus the deletions at times may not be genuine.

One may ask, 'what are the senior officers doing? And why can’t the system is devised in a way that it doesn’t allow the subjectiveness of the BLO?’ The answer is: The senior officers are so few (1 DC, and 12 senior officers to manage 21 lakh records, that too part time!).

Regarding checks and balances, the ECI came up with beautiful system of asking the Political parties to appoint one agent from their party for every polling booth, called as Booth Level Agent (BLA).  Apart from that, the additions/deletions are accepted ONLY after it is displayed in the notice board, and objections are called for.

In reality, the political parties are so far not serious about appointing BLAs. Nor the citizens take pains to check the notice board in the Taluka office.  The general apathy about the Roll during non-election time is palpable. It is just left to the official machinery!

One might ask, what to the senior officers do? What if his mistake is caught by the senior officer, as it happens once in a while? Maximum is that the BLO is suspended for a month or so. Everybody feels that it’s a too harsh a punishment for just making an 'error' in his part-time job. And he goes scot free!

The electoral system can't escape the general inefficiency in the governance on in any organisation. One might ask, 'But it appears that the problems are more in Election'. I beg to differ. Indeed the mistakes are far less in Election process, which in any other field of governance, thanks to the sword of ECI hanging over the head of all officials!

The case of Mysore:

Lets take Mysore for example. Mysore has 21 lakh voters. How many mistakes in that? The deletions in the last 6 months (November to April) are around 43,000 in the city. But the additions are around 63,000. Thus the net is positive. Among the 43,000 'deletions' only around 3,900 are real deletions, and balance is 'shifting' the voters from one polling Booth to another. (Read, Ravi's article in Praja.mysore on how his parents were shifted from one booth to another!)

Why shifting? That is done to rationalise the polling booths, and also during the delimitation exercise. In an ideal situation, we need to do go for a spatial study of combining various logical parameters.  But, currently, in absence of a detailed spatial data, it is done manually by the BLOs. Now you know how the manual errors have crept in. Adding to this is the mistakes encountered in data entry of this huge data. The errors can be minimised only when we get the best in the market, but then it cost a lot!

Considering all these constraints, the error of margin, 0.18% is seems to be not away from the mark. The number of deletions for the city of Mysore are neatly tabulated in the presentation available at: www.mysoreelections.com <http://www.mysoreelections.com/>

The ratio is approximately 0.18%. (3,900/21,00,000). The deletions are arranged in descending order. You will notice the huge deletions; more than 100 are only in 10-20 booths. So it is not right to say '1000 are deleted'. But, yes, 100s are deleted, of which many of them may be incorrect deletions.  We may note that, the figures make it very clear that there are no biases in the deletion like 'minority' etc. In Mysore, the maximum deletions are in Chamaraja constituency, which has fewer minorities and fewer slums.)

I am not supporting any mistake made by the govt officials. But just want to make the facts very clear. Also, the opinion that 'deletions' are responsible for low percentage of polling, is taking things too much. The 'deletions', as explained, matter only 0.18%. But, yes, incorrect deletion is bad, because, it robs the citizen of something which is priceless.

Now, what is the solution? Needless to say, it involves improving the governance in general. As short term solution, we may go for more VFCs round the clock, as planned in B'lore. May be dedicated officials, to take care of the Roll, rather than part time staff, who are always hard pressed for time.

Notwithstanding anything, I sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to the voters in this regard. I empathise with them and will do all to reduce such errors. I attended almost all calls that day; 135 calls, of which 90% are about deletions.

It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure a correct Roll. The admn has to take the lead. We are ready. Are you ready? Will there be more persons like Dr. Mysoremath, or Dr. Bapu Sathyanarayana, or Erram or Maj. Gen Vombatkere, or Bhamy Shenoy or Muralidhar who are ready to give their time and energy for such activities? Can the citizen committees give their input?

In any election process, there appear to be three main stake holders. The citizens, who vote; the political parties who require the votes; and the admn which enables and regulates the process. We, from the admn are ready to have a brainstorming session on this. Will the other two stake holders volunteer?

Warm regards,

Manivannan

In the present elections case 23rd and 30th April  the irregularities have occrrued in various ways in Mysore, Mumbai and Bengaluru etc. While filing form-6 repatedly for inclusion of  my relatives names has been done over a period of two years I persisted after a helpline was set up in Blr and two days before election on April 23rd I got a call that names were included and they were able to cast vote and excercise their FRANCHISE  in the polling booth close to residence which took only 5 minutes and it was a big relief.

Many others who have lived for over 25 years in the same place did not find their names like Basavanagudi, Banashankari , KG Halli and Chamaraja etc but the reasons could be different

In my case the names are now in two places even though I left that area three years ago so I will have to get it deleted there myself which i will do.

Where does the buck stop with the administration and governance? 

Will the top official involved at any level like district or division ever be found accountable

Is it only the politicians who must resign based on moral responsibility?

 

 

 

If nothing else, I am game for a meeting to understand the process and the system.

A word of caution to fellow members. Not saying you don't attack and point out the the problems of the system etc. But it is always advisable to at least take the effort to understand the constraints or situation at "their" end.

A meeting with SEC, or local level senior official like Mr Manivannan will help develop that understandings, without which, we would just go on a needless ranting trip here (that I certainly don't like to participate in).

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the responses. I will again revert back once i get to read all opinions. Meanwhile, as an interim response, I agree partially with Anand. Micro solutions do not add up to solving Macro problems. We need to understand the issues involved completley, and may have to think of a comprehensive solution. The proposal to outsource, by Murali needs to be explored further.

My humble opinion is that, we should not miss making local attempts, while waiting for the Macro solutions. Who knows, tommorrow, our attempts may throw good ideas which may be used at National level.

And, for the information of 'public agenda', the buck stops at Manivannan's table, as far as Mysore district Rolls are concerned. As the District Election officer (DEO), it is my duty to ensure a correct Roll. I take responsibility for the errors in the Rolls of Mysore District.

As i had clearly mentioned in my note, my intention was/is not to defend any offcial or to deflect the issue. It is to share the information with committed citizens like you, so that we can collectively make an attempt to provide actionable suggestions to improve the Roll.

With warm regards,

Manivannan

Mr.Manivannan,

Sir - greatly appreciate yr post/s on this thread. It is very heartening to see an official comment here & to make attempts to inform us about reasons as to why the electoral rolls have errors. This is not an isolated case & is perhaps a pan-indian issue.

I strongly feel that EC /SECs & citizens getting into the act only when elections are around the corner is the main reason for all this lacuna that result in erraneous voters' particulars & the avoidable malpractices & fraud/s. I quote below a post that I had made earlier on another thread on this subject :

We have heard enough complaints related to deficiencies with electoral rolls. It is now time for a complete overhaul.

The old system of waking up at the last minute & trying to meet the demands of updating the rolls just a few months before elections has not worked.

What is needed is a system that works throughout the year, irrespective of whether elections are scheduled or not since the numbers are too large to cope with in a few months.

Though EC & the various SECs are full-time bodies, their work begins in earnest only when elections are scheduled & this is perhaps where the problem is.

If these bodies have sufficient staff strength all through the year on a permanent basis, one can get his EPIC anytime & also, the rolls will be up-to-date at any time, similar to a PAN card or a driving license.

The move toward a full-time operation can be a formidable task for the SECs & to do this, some actions & investments are necessary. Round the year staff with salaries, office network/s, a secure database management would all be necessary, but I think this is already overdue now.

Mumbai's voter turnout is also very poor - even in a city dominated by slums with over 70% population. So, it's no different anywhere in the country, & this is very telling.