Remote Voting for Migrants - The Hindu - 18/01/23

Context:
Recently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has proposed a new Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM), which will allow domestic migrants to vote in national and regional elections. The EC proposed using this in a State Assembly election as a pilot so internal migrants within a state can cast their ballots.
Relevance:
GS2;GS3
About:
->Need for Remote Voting:
a. Decrease in Voting Turnout
b. Internal Migration
c. SC's direction: Hearing a petition on the alleged denial of voting opportunities to migrants, the Supreme Court (SC) had in 2015 directed the EC to explore options for remote voting.
d. Increasing Registrations of Unorganised Workers

->RVM: RVM is a modified version of the existing Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). The special remote polling booths would be set up in different states when elections are on in the home state of migrants.

-Security: The system would have a device similar to the so voters can verify their votes. The units will save the number of votes for each candidate for each of the constituencies, to be tallied on counting day. The results would then be shared with the home RO (Returning Officer).

->Concerns and Challenges Ahead:
The Multi-Constituency RVM for migrant voting will have the same security system and voting experience as the EVM. This essentially means that the challenges with regard to the current EVMs will persist when it comes to the RVMs.

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