Why in News?
- Recently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has proposed a new Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM), which will permit domestic migrants to vote in national and regional elections.
- The EC proposed using this in a State Assembly election as a pilot project so internal migrants within a state can cast their ballots.
About Remote Voting-
- Remote Voting refers to all means which allow electors to vote from locations other than the polling station assigned to the location where they are registered to vote. The remote voting location can be either international or from within the country.
- It includes both electronic voting and non-electronic voting mechanisms.
Need for Remote Voting-
- Decrease in Voting Turnout- In 2019 general election, over 91 percent of its eligible citizens were registered with 67 percent of them coming out to vote, which is the highest voter turnout in the nation’s history.
- It is, however, concerning that a third of the eligible voters, approx. 30 crore people, do not vote.
- Internal Migration- One of the key reasons for less voter turnout remained the internal migration that took electors away from their home constituencies.
- Electors can have their names added to the electoral rolls of the constituency they ordinarily reside in, but a large no. chose to retain the Voter ID from their home constituencies for several reasons.
- Supreme Court’s Direction- Hearing a petition on the alleged denial of voting opportunities to migrants, the Supreme Court (SC) had in 2015 instructed the EC to explore options for remote voting.
- Increasing Registrations of Unorganised Workers- There are around 10 million migrant workers, associated with the unorganised sector, registered with the government’s e-SHRAM portal. If the remote voting project is incorporated, it will have far reaching ramifications.
Issues with Remote Voting-
- Security and Integrity- Remote voting systems are vulnerable to hacking, fraud, and other types of manipulation.
- This could lead to unreliable and incorrect results and could threaten the integrity of the entire election.
- Elections always need a high level of security in order to protect voter privacy and the integrity of final results.
- Accessibility of Remote Voting- Not all citizens may have access to the internet or the required technology to participate in online voting.
- Likewise, mail-in ballots may not reach certain remote areas or may not be delivered on time.
- Additionally, not all citizens may be able to travel to embassies/consulates to vote.
- This could lead to disenfranchisement of certain groups of citizens and could change the election results.
- Veracity and Verification- A voter verification system that uses biometric software, like facial recognition, could lead to false positives or negatives in voter identification, thus facilitating fraud or disenfranchising citizens.
- Internet Connection and Malware Security- There is a dependency on voters having a reliable internet connection. In some countries Internet penetration and availability and use of e-government services are limited.
- Software errors or malware on voters’ devices may also affect vote casting.
- Affect Elections and Campaigning- In a playing field which is far from level, remote voting can theoretically give an added edge to larger parties and richer candidates who can campaign across the constituency and beyond.
State of Migrant Population in India-
- As per the 2011 Census, Internal migrants are around 450 million, up 45% from the 2001 Census.
- Among them, 26% (117 million) of the migration takes place within districts in the same state, whereas 12% (54 million) of the migration takes place across states.
- This figure is low, according to both official and unaffiliated experts.
- When family members are counted, the number of short-term and cyclical migrants could touch 60–65 million, or about 100 million in total. Among them, interstate migrants make up half.