Election Commission toys with idea of digital voter ID card

Election Commission toys with idea of digital voter ID card

The Voter ID Card is the most important document for the citizens to cast their vote in the Assembly/Parliamentary/Panchayat/other elections. It looks like a size of credit/debit card which fits into a valet. Now, it is all set to change the manual voter ids into digital or Electronic Voter ID Cards (EPIC). If this project gets implemented, the citizens are no need to carry their voter cards in wallet. Moreover, the individuals can simply carry their E-Voter Cards online in their mobiles. All the details of the citizen will get stored on their mobiles which is easily downloadable. It reduces the misplace and theft of voter id card in the near future.

The interested applicants can visit the official website and apply for the voter id cards online on the designated web portal.

Digital Voter ID Card (EPIC)

“EC has not taken a final decision in this regard yet. We keep getting suggestions and ideas from officers on fields, through working groups of (state) chief electoral officers and public. This is one such idea we are working on,” an election commission official told.

Features of the E-Voter ID Cards

Let us look at features of the digital voter id cards that the government will plan to launch in India.

• The Election Commission (EC) is planning to launch a Digital Voter ID (EPIC) Cards to ease the process of the carrying the voter cards.

• The candidates can soon start carrying their voter cards on their mobiles in the electronic form.

• Digital Voter IDs consists of all the details such as Name of the Voter, Voter ID Number, Polling Station and other details as similar to the manual voter cards.

• The Electronic Voter ID is different from the Manual Voter ID Card because it is available in PDF Document Form that can be downloaded in a mobile or computer.

• The soft copy also contains a QR code that will carry the voter’s enrolment details such as name and date of birth and address.

• Moreover, this initiation will save a lot of cost to the election commission in printing and distributing the Voter ID Cards.

• As per the new from information sources, the digital voter cards may come up for consideration before the next set of Assembly elections next year.

• However, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry will vote in early summer 2021.

Benefits of Digital Voter ID Cards

Let us have a look at the benefits of the yet to be launched Digital Voter ID Cards as shown below.

• The digital voter cards are in electronic form and can be carried easily to anywhere and everywhere.

• It mitigates the fear of lost, misplace, and theft of the Voter ID Cards.

• The digital initiation will benefit the Election Commission by making the cost of printing the manual id cards to zero.

• The applicants are not required to visit any government offices or undergo long online application process to apply for the voter cards.

• It saves the time and energy of both the citizens and the government officials.

• The digital id cards can be easily downloaded and carried in digital form.

How to Apply Electronic Voter ID Cards EPIC

Let us see the procedure to apply for the electronic voter id cards online on the portal. At present, we are presenting you the available information on the Digital Voter ID Cards Application Procedure.

• The eligible voters will have to provide their mobile number or email address to the EC machinery at the time of applying for enrolment in the voters’ list.

• Once after the candidate gets enrolled, the applicant candidate will receive an SMS or email.

• The voter can then download the Voter Card through OTP (One Time Password) Authentication.

• Moreover, already existing voters can can reverify their details with the Election Commission. For doing that, the voters should provide the details like Mobile Number and Email ID to avail of the digital voter id card.

What is the tentative date of the launch of the Digital Voter ID Cards in India?

• At Present, there is no accurate information available regarding the launch of the Voter ID Cards. However, the Digital Voter IDs may launch soon in the upcoming elections.

Do the applicants are required to take the print outs of Voter ID Cards at time of elections?

• No, citizens are not required to take a print out or a hard copy at the time of casting their vote in the elections. The citizens can simply carry soft copy of the voter card.

Are both the Digital Voter ID and Standard Voter Card same?

• No, the digital voter id card and manual voter card are not same. The digital voter is available in electronic format and the manual voter card is available in form of hard copy.

How to carry my digital voter id card at the time of casting my vote in the elections?

• The voters can simply carry their digital voter cards in electronic format on their mobiles and cast their votes.

Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com