Modernizing our Voter Registration System to Awaken Indian Democracy

Modernizing Our Voter Registration System to Awaken Indian Democracy

Author : Arish Rajan Contributors : Megha Narkhede, Harshul, Raghav & Tushar

Why we need to build an Efficient Voter Registration System

2. Key Problems in the Current Voter Registration System

7. Making the New IT Based Voter Registration S/m Zero Cost by Using it to Provide KYC facility to Banks

1. Neglect of their duty by the Indian Public

4. Inadequate Expenditure made by the Indian Govt to maintain the Voter Registration System

Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these 7 Points.2

3. Highlights of Proposed ‘New IT Based Voter Registration System’

5. Calculations –

a) Number of Application Forms to be processed in 1 year

b) Number of new employees that need to be hired for Election Department

c) Estimated Annual Expense

d) Number of Lok Sabha seats impacted

6. Cost Cutting Options that must be Avoided

Full Set of Potential Applicants

Actual Applicants

150

100

110

1000

60

40

80

20

850 Citizens who do NOT Apply to

Register as Voters

Apply Individually

Apply Via Bulk Voter Registration Drives

Verification of Application Forms

Processing of Application Forms

Final Output1. Names added to Voter List : 602. Names Added to Voter List without any Mistakes : 303. Voter ID Card Received by Applicant : 154. Correct Address & Contact Details saved inElection Department Database : 0

Application Forms Accepted

Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these Topics.

Current Voter Registration System

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Building Blocks of Proposed IT Based Voter Registration System

1. Changes Required in Election Department Team Structure Slide

a) Current Team Structureb) Team Structure required for Proposed IT based

System

2. Accurate & Detailed Maps of each Constituency should be available in Government Website

4. Issue – Very Difficult to identify One’s Polling booth and Constituency.

a) Current Situationb) How the New System will solve this issue

5. A Citizen requires to Submit Up To 6 Separate Application Forms to process all his requirement


3. Issue – Large Number of Bogus Voters in Voter List


Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these 5 Topics.4

Building Blocks of Proposed IT Based Voter Registration System

1. Changes Required in Election Department Team Structure Slide

a) Current Team Structureb) Team Structure required for Proposed IT based

System

2. Accurate & Detailed Maps of each Constituency should be available in Government Website

4. Issue – Very Difficult to identify One’s Polling booth and Constituency.


5. A Citizen requires to Submit Up To 6 Separate Application Forms to process all his requirement


3. Issue – Large Number of Bogus Voters in Voter List


Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these 5 Topics.5

Full Set of Potential Applicants(All Citizens are able to Apply)

1000

1000

1000

1000

Filling and Submitting Application Form& 1st Round of Verification

2nd Round of Verification

Processing of Application Forms & Printing of Voter Id Card

Final Output1. Names added to Voter List : 10002. Names Added to Voter List without any Mistake: 10003. Voter ID Card Received by Applicant : 10004. Correct Address & Contact Details saved in

Election Department Database: 1000

Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these Topics.

New IT Based Voter Registration System

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Advantages of Proposed IT Based Voter Registration System

1. Time Required to get registered as Voter

2. Voter Registration Drive Duration

3. Ease of Filling Application Form

4. Ease of Submitting Application Form

5. Accessibility of Election Offices

6. Working Hours of Election Office

7. Election Department Team Structure 8. Quality of Service Provided

9. Notifying/Informing the Applicant 10. Storing ALL Info related to Additions & Deletions made in Voter List

11. Enrolment to Graduate Constituency & Teacher Constituency

12. Efficiency of Voter Registration Process

13. Environment Friendliness 14. Number of Applicants in 1 year

Click on the Light Blue Boxes to see Full Details about each of these 14 Points.7

Thank You

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Why We Need to Build

an Efficient Voter Registration System

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1. Neglect of their duty by Indian Public

It is said that they neglect their duty to – Get their name added to the Voter List (Causes Low Percentage of Voting) When they shift their residence they do not transfer their name to the Voter List of the new place. It leads to –

a) Low Voter Turnout: They are Not able to vote as they live far away from the place where they had registered as Voters

b) Bogus Voting: In their old place bogus voting could be done in their name

The Root Cause for this problem is the Inefficient and Cumbersome Voter Registration System in India.

Citizens in India are often blamed for their Apathy towards the Democratic process.

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This problem is especially serious in Indian Cities. India is urbanising rapidly. Millions of young educated and hardworking people are shifting to cities every year. However only a small percentage of this group votes. This a great loss to the Nation. If the Educated and Aware citizens vote, then they would elect leaders with progressive, development oriented policies. Such leaders can quickly guide the country to a prosperous future.

2. Key Problems in the Current Voter Registration System

The Performance of the Current System

4 to 12 months of Time Required to get your name added to Voter List

Only 60% of Applicant get their name Added to Voter List. No reason given for Rejection.

Only 15% Applicant get Voter ID Card

At least 50% of Voter Id Cards have mistakes in fields like – Name, Age, Father’s name etc.

100% Voter ID cards have Wrong/Incomplete Address written

Understanding the Effort required from the Applicant to get Registered

Voter Registration Drives happen for only 2 Months in a Year. By the time Citizens come to know about the drive, it is already over.

In a City like Pune only 10-12% of Eligible people Apply(including people who need to transfer their name to new address)

The Election Department is extremely understaffed. They are not able to handle even this 10% load. So, they resort to Confusing the Applicants and Actively Discourage Citizens from applying.

Applicant has to spend a Minimum of 2 Working Days to apply and collect Voter Id Cards

An Average working person in City earns around 15,000-20,000 rupees in a month. A month has 22-25 working days.

So to spend 2 Working Days in this activity is Equivalent of Donating 1500-2000 rupees to the country

Also, as we have seen in above point, EVEN after making this Sacrifice and Waiting for 12 months, the Chance of getting name added to Voter List is Very Low.

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3. Highlights of Proposed ‘New IT Based Voter Registration System’

Benefits: The IT Based Voter Registration System will be available 365 days, throughout the year. It will be -

Easy to Fill and Submit Application Form. Easy to Track Status of Application form. Adds name in Voter List in Just 4 days. SMS and Email Alerts sent to applicant after each step of processing. 100% Applicants get their Voter Id Card. All info/Personal details printed on the Voter Id Card will be Correct. Easy to track and remove bogus voters

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Impact: These 16.22 crore people in 54 cities represent 70-100 Lok Sabha seats. They also represent 700-800 Vidhan Sabha seats and 1000’s of Municipality seats. When the Educated and Aware citizens in these 54 cities participate fully in democracy then we will get 1000s of honest, able and progressive leaders.

Municipal Corporations across the country will become more Efficient and People Friendly.In many States this will have a important impact on who becomes the Chief Minister.

A Swing of 70-100 Lok Sabha seats will have a Decisive Impact in Choosing India’s Prime Minister.

Citizens to whom the service will be provided: 16.22 crore people living in India’s largest 54 Cities (Indian Cities having a population of more than 10 lakh should be covered in phase 1)

Number of Application Forms that should ideally be collected from these Cities: 2.92 crores per year

Number of Employees required to run this system: 7500

Cost: 375 crore rupees per year

4. Indian Govt’s Current Budgetary Allocation to support Voter Registration Activity

Expenditure budgeted by Indian Govt (Central + All State Govt) in financial year 2013-14 was 30 Lakh Crore rupees.

Funds Allocated to Election Commission for Voter Registration & Issuing Voter Id Card is Only 70 Crores i.e. 0.002% of annual budget. This is clearly inadequate for this very important task.

To ensure that the vast amount of funds spent by the Indian Govt every year (i.e. 30 Lakh Crore) is managed by Honest and Able leaders for the greatest good of the country, we should not hesitate to spend a little more on Voter Registration System

Instead of spending only .002% of annual budget (70 crores)Let us at least spend .02% of annual budget (i.e. 700 crores)Using the Powerful IT facilities/products available today, we can create a very efficient Voter registration System at a Low Cost.

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5 a) Number of Application Forms that Need to be Processed in 1 Year in Pune City

People Moving to Cities for Education and Employment: Every year around 3 lakh people come to Pune from different parts of Maharashtra and India.

People Living as Tenants have to Frequently Change their Address Pune’s current population is around 55 lakhs. Around 66% of this population is above the age of 18 (i.e. Eligible Voter).Thus the Number of Eligible voters in Pune City = 66% of 55 lakhs = 36 Lakhs

In a City like Pune, nearly half of the population lives as tenants. Thus in Pune around 18 Lakh Eligible Voters (half of 36 Lakhs) will be living as Tenants.The rent agreements are usually of 11 months. So most tenants have to change their house once in 1-3 years.

This means that these 18 Lakh Eligible Voters need to Submit Application Forms again in 1-3 years, to Register their name in the Voter list of new Ward/Polling Booth/ Constituency as per their new address .

We can thus assume that every year at least 7 Lakh Application Form will be submitted due to this reason (Tenants shifting residence)

Number of Voter Registration Forms expected to be submitted in Pune in 1 Year -

3 Lakh Applicants for New Registrations + 7 lakh Applicants for Transferring Voter Registration =10 Lakh Applicants

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We shall first Analyse the case of Pune City and then use it to Estimate the total requirement of all Indian Cities

5 b) Number of Election Dept. Employees required to Run the New System

In the previous slide we calculated that in a City of 55 Lakhs, around 10 Lakh Application forms will be submitted in a year. Thus the Number of Application forms expected to be submitted in a year is around 18% of the City’s population

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As per the census of 2011, India has 54 Cities with a Population greater than 10 Lakhs. The Combined Population of these 54 Cities is 16.22 crores. This means that 2.92 crore application form need to processed every year. (18 percent of 16.22 crores) In 1 working day, around 116,800 Application form need to be processed. (assuming 250 working days in a year)

In the new IT Based System, it would take 30-35 minutes of work to completely process an Application. This includes – Verification of Application Form Verification of Proof Document Adding Name to Voter List Printing and Distributing the Voter Id Card

One employee of Election Department would be able to process 15-20 applications per day.

Thus Election Department would require 7500 employees to run this system

5 c) Estimating Annual Expense of Running the New IT Based Voter Registration System

The expenditure of maintaining 1 employee would be around 5 Lakhs per year (Cost of Salary + Office Infrastructure)

So the Expenditure to Election Commission to run this system will be 375 crore rupees per year. (7500 employees, 5 Lakh rupees spent per employee)

Today many sick PSU’s are being closed. The employees of these sick PSU’s can be moved to the election department and accommodated within these 7500 vacancies. It will help the government to avoid expensive golden handshakes. It will help the PSU employees to avoid traumatic loss of job.

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5 d) Estimating Impact of the New IT Based Voter Registration System

Parameter Value

(A) Population of India 121.02 crores

(B) Number of People per Seat; B = A/545 22.2 Lakhs

(C) Combined Population of the 54 cities to be covered by this system 16.22 crores

(D) Number of Lok Sabha Seats represented by these 54 cities; D = C / B 73 Lok Sabha Seats

However on ground, many Lok Sabha constituencies contain both urban and rural areas. So these cities will not be represented by 73 exclusively urban Lok Sabha seats.Rather they will be spread across 100+ Lok Sabha seats which also include some of the neighbouring rural areas.Thus the New IT Based Voter Registration System will impact around 100 Lok Sabha Seats.

6 a) Cost Cutting Options that MUST be Avoided while Creating this Critical System

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Avoid Using Private Contractors instead of hiring Employees for Election Department

It is possible to reduce this cost to half, by using private contractors. However we will strongly recommend AGAINST using such an approach. Significant amount of wrong doings might occur in this critical activity if it is done by low cost private contractors .

If any wrong doing is committed in this critical work then the IT System will allow us to easily pin point the Operator who has committed it. Strict action like Suspension or Dismissal can be taken against the errant person.

A Government job is Valued Greatly for its Stability and Post Retirement benefits. The fear of strict action like dismissal/suspension will act as a very strong Deterrent for a government employee against doing any wrong doings.

Private contractors usually employ low paid staff, who switch jobs in short time spans. No practical action can be taken against such a work force.

6 b) Cost Cutting Options that MUST be Avoided while Creating this Critical System

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Avoid using In-house IT team to develop the New IT System for Voter Registration

The system must be very robust so that it can handle the load of crores of people using it.The most modern technology and expertise should be utilized to create it.

The In-House teams do not have Expertise and Experience to take up such a complex project. The Poor Performance of IRCTC website is living lesson for us. The poor performance of this website causes agony to millions of Indians everyday.

On the other hand the superb performance of Trading Platform of NSE and BSE stock exchange shows to us that IT technology today can –

Efficiently service far greater workload than IRCTC Provide 100% accuracy as needed in the Financial Sector

The Top IT Companies in the world should be invited to Bid to develop the IT system for this New Voter Registration System.

7 a) Making the New IT Based S/m Zero Cost by Using it to Provide KYC facility to Banks

A good Voter Registration System will build an Accurate Database with Address of all citizens in India.

It can be used by all the Banks in India as a unified KYC (Know Your Customer) Database.

This will provide a wonderful facility to citizens. Instead of changing their address separately for their multiple bank accounts and credit cards, they will only need to update their address in one place.

Banks and Credit card Issuers will also be able to avoid a lot of hassles and always have Up to date address of their customer.

This Database can also be utilized by other service providers like –Telephone/Mobile Connection Providers, Internet Connection Providers etc.

In fact it is quite likely that the Banks will be happy to Finance the Cost of Setting up and Maintaining this System.

It will be now in Citizens own interest to get his address updated in the Voter List, as this same address will be used by dozens of service providers with whom he is interacting. So, he will himself change his address as soon as he shifts to a new address. This will lead to 100% Voter Registration. We can then even look to Implement Compulsory Voting after this.

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7 b) Making the New IT Based S/m Zero Cost by Using it to Provide KYC facility to Banks

Calculation - Raising Revenue for New Voter Registration System

Banks can be charged Rs 10 per year for providing address of 1 Bank Account or Credit Card. Today there are 68.4 crore bank accounts in India. Revenue generated = 68.4 * 10 = 684 crore rupeesToday there are 1.9 crore credit cards in India. Revenue generated = 1.9 * 10 = 19 crore rupees

Telephone/Mobile and Internet Service Providers can be charged Rs 5 per year for providing address of a customer.Today there are 74 crore active phone connections in India. Revenue generated = 74 * 10 = 740 crore rupeesToday there are 16 crore internet connections in India. Revenue generated = 16 * 10 = 160 crore rupees

Total Revenue generated = 684 + 19 + 740 + 160 = 1603 crore rupees per year Thus we see that we can easily raise huge amount of funds to maintain a First Class Voter Registration System

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Current Voter Registration System

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MisinformedOnly people born in Pune/ Maharashtra can Vote here.

100

Does Not CareMy 1 Vote can not make any difference

150

ConfusedIt is difficult to find out the address of Election Offices where I need to go to register as Voter.

Missed the ChanceWhen I went to Register , Govt had Closed the Voter Registration drive.

150

150

Lost Confidence in Election Department

1. No Acknowledgement Receipt is provided2. No way to track the progress3. 12 months to process the form4. If name does not come in Voter list there is no mechanism to find out, what the problem was.

Afraid of Hassles1. No Time to make many trips to Govt office and stand in long lines2. Cannot come during working hours.

150

1000

All Potential Applicants

Aware,Determined & Responsible Citizen

150

150

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5

Not Processed

1. No staff to handle this. All Online Applications go to very senior Officers (Deputy Collectors) who are too busy to process it.

2. It gives absolutely no benefit to applicant as he needs to print the form and physically go to ERO office to submit. Thus it is the same as Applying in paper format.

5

10

Discouraged /Not Allowed

Election Dept is heavily understaffed and cannot handle so much workload. So they often do not allow Citizen to submit forms for excuses like -a) Part number is wrong.b) You have to find your BLO/ERO office and submit there.c) This week we are busy.

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Online Application Paper Application

Application Form Misplaced

This happens due to confusion arising from handling 1000's of Paper forms

5

Submitted

20

40

Application Forms which are Submitted Individually

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10

Not Submitted

Not verified that proof docs have been attached or that All required info is filled.

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Not Submitted

1. Not put sincere effort to verify the forms and submit at right place.2. Vote Bank Politics: Not Submit forms of people of Community/ Economic Class unlikely to vote for him.

Voter Drives by PoliticiansVoter Drives by NGO

Submitted Submitted

70 10

Total Submitted

80

80 30

1100

Issue with Bulk Voter Registration Drives

Politically Motivated groups can misuse this facility to easily create Multiple Voter Id Cards for their supporters in fictional address. This leads to large amount of bogus voting

Application Forms which are Submitted Via Bulk

Voter Registration Drives

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60

10

Rejected, Valid Reason

For e.g., Applications with -1. Incomplete info2. Insufficient proof docs

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Rejected, InValid Reason

1. Election Dept is heavily understaffed and cannot handle so much workload. So they reject forms for all kinds of excuses For e.g. -a) Part Number not providedb) Transfer of Voter registration from other state not allowed2. Most of staff of Election Dept is Part Time hence they do NOT know the rules properly, Not aware of List of Documents which can be used as Address proof. So many Applications having Valid Address proof get rejected due to this

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100Why Election Dept employees are Not Helpful/Friendly

1. They are truly one of the most overburdened employees anywhere. There are just 11 full time employees in Election Dept for Pune City having a population of 55 lakhs2. They have to frequently work on Saturdays and Sundays.3. Sometimes they work till midnight and even do night outs.4. The Part Time staff feel it is an unfair burden dumped on them. They are usually school teachers. Due to unmanageable workload they are neither able to do their duty as school teachers nor as election dept employees.5. The Govt system is very Inadequate and Manual which makes it very difficult to work -a) No proper maps exist for constituenciesb) Unnecessarily Complex system with 400+ sub sections called as Part number under each constituency. It is nightmare of a task to assign an applicant to the correct Part Number.c) These employees do not have any IT skills6. It is a thankless job and they have to face unending complaints from Angry Citizens

Rejected

Accepted

Application Forms which Reach the Verification Step

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Data Entry DoneName Added to Voter List

Issues with Data Entry Activity1. This activity is also done very carelessly. More mistakes are added to the Applicant data like -Name/Age/Father's name etc to the Voter Database.2. No notification sent to the Applicant to inform his/her name has been added to the Voter list.

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Voter Id Card DistributionFinally Voter Id Card Received by Applicant

Issues with Voter Id Card DistributionNo notification sent to Applicant ‘s to inform about where/when to collect Voter ID card. Thousands of Voter ID cards are lying unclaimed in election offices.

Pink Slip PreparedA portion of the info in the Application form is manually copied to a document called as Pink Slip

Issues with Pink Slip Preparation1. Lot of useful data like Phone Number/Email is not copied to Pink Slip. Thus Govt now has no way to contact/notify the Voter.

2. For most of the applicants Wrong/Partial address is entered. This happens as 90% of Hsg Societies do not have their Section Numbers. Thus Govt has No Way to visit Voters house for verification purpose. This is the main reason why India has crores of bogus voters

3. This activity is done very carelessly. For a large number of Applicants, incorrect Name/Age/Father's name etc are entered to the Pink Slip.

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Voter Id Card Printed

Application Forms which Reach the Processing Step

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Building Blocks of

Proposed New IT-Based

Voter Registration System

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1 a) Current Team Structure of Election Department

Currently Election Department of Pune City has 4000+ Part Time/Partial employees There are Only 11 Full Time employees (1 for each Constituency) Most of the Election Dept employees themselves do not know the correct rules and regulations (as they are Part Time Employees) This causes lot of Mistakes and Inefficiency

Post Designation Type of Employment Nbr of people at this post

ERO Deputy Collector

Partial - 1 day per week: A deputy collector usually has to take care of many other important responsibilities and can give only 1 day in a week for this department

11

Assistant ERO

Tehsildar Partial: Has many other responsibilities from other departments11

NaibTehsildar

Naib Tehsildar Full Time11

BLO School Teacher

Part Time: Only involved for 2 months in a year when there is more election related work 4000

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1 b) Team Structure required for Proposed IT based System

The working hours will be 2 pm to 11 pm. (Housewives/ Women will find the 2pm to 6 pm time period convenient. Office goers will prefer to come in the 6 pm to 11 pm time period).

Earlier in this PPT we have calculated that ideally 10 Lakh Application Forms should be submitted in Pune in 1 year. In 1 working day, around 4000 Application forms need to be processed. (assuming 250 working days in a year)

One employee of Election Department would be able to process 15-20 applications per day.So Pune Election Department will require a staff of 240 full time IT trained persons to support this workload

Thus we can see that the proposed system will handle nearly 10 times the workload; with a much smaller workforce.

There would be 60 Voter Help Centers (VHC) with 4 employees each. The VHC will be Open 7 days a week and 365 days a year. The VHCs could be set up as another room in the Post Offices.

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2. Accurate & Detailed Map of each Constituency should be present in Govt Website

We NGOs have created high quality maps of each Constituency using Google Maps. We can provide these maps to Election Department. They can be verified and then uploaded to Govt websites.

The constituency maps currently provided by Election Department are very poor. It is virtually impossible for citizens to identify their constituency using such maps.

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Actual Number of People living in the house

Number of People living in the house as per Voters List (Large Number of BOGUS VOTERS)

3 a) Large Number of Bogus Voters are Present in Voter List Today

Root Cause of this Problem: Election Dept Database does not have Correct/Complete address of even a single voter

So, Election Department is not able to conduct inspections to verify whether a particular voter really lives in that area or not. Due to this, Election Department is Not Able to Delete the names of Bogus Voters from the voter list.

Maximum amount of bogus voting happens for voters who did not provide photo for their voter id cards. In Pune there are 7,25,000 such voters who have not provided their photos. The Election Dept is unable to visit these people to collect photo as it does not have their address.

The address is stored in Database of Election Dept in the following format - House Nbr, Section Name, Area and City. Section name is equivalent to Housing Society. Today 90-95% of Housing Societies in Pune are not entered in the Database of Election Department as Sections. Thus all addresses saved in the database are incomplete as they do not have Section name i.e Housing society name.

Example -Complete Address: A102, Shubham Apartment, Dhanori, PuneAddress Stored : A102, Dhanori, PuneAs we can see, without the Housing Society name, the address stored is of no use.

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3 b) How the New System will help to Remove Bogus Voters from Voter List

All Hsg Societies in Pune should be added to the database as Sections under appropriate Polling Booths & Constituency.

The number of houses in each housing society should also be recorded. If the number of voters under any section/housing society becomes disproportionally high as compared to number of houses in it; then Election department can send inspection squads in that area to catch bogus voters.

Example: If a Housing Society with only 100 houses has 700 names in voter list, then it is likely that there are several bogus voters in this housing society. The Election Dept should conduct an inspection and remove all the bogus voters.

We NGOs have collected list of Housing Societies in each area in Pune and can provide it to government.

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4 a) Current System: Very Difficult for Applicant to find his Polling booth & Constituency

Each constituency in Pune has around 400 polling booths. The Polling booth number is called as Part number.

Difficult to find own Polling Booth from a list of 400 Polling Booths

The area which falls under each Polling booth is very poorly defined. So, it is very difficult for an ordinary citizen or even an Election Department employee to identify the correct Part number from nearly 400 part numbers under that constituency.

Today, 1000's of Citizens are NOT allowed to submit Application Forms because they are not able to find their Part number. 1000's of Application forms are rejected as they are having wrong Part number.

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Easy to find own Section from a list of 10-15 Sections

4 b) New System: Applicant can Easily identify his Polling booth & Constituency

The entire area of Pune City will be divided into Squares of 1km * 1km.

As Pune City has an area of 6-700 square km, there will be 6-700 such 'Squares'.

The IT system will keep a list of all Sections (Housing Societies) which lie inside each of theses 'Squares'.

First the Applicant will enter his/her address in the Online Application form. A Google Map window will Pop out.

Using the address the appropriate 'Square' for the Applicant will be identified.

All the Sections (Housing Societies) in his /her 'Square' will be displayed.

The Applicant can then choose his Section (Housing Societies).

This will Automatically populate his Part Number (Polling Booth) and Constituency.

When Applicant's Housing Society is NOT present in the list of Sections –

Applicant will use the option "Other" and mention the Name of his Housing Society and the Number of houses in it.

The Election Dept will inspect this Housing Society.

After verification, it will be added as a New Section under appropriate Polling Booth and Constituency.

This process will ensure that the IT database will always stay up to date and contain all the newly created Housing Societies as Sections.

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Six Separate Applications

5 a) Current System: A Citizen needs to submit up to 6 Separate Applications

Let us understand this with an example. A person is enrolled in all 3 types of constituencies - General Voter, Teacher and Graduate. He changes his address and wants to move his Voter Registration to his new area of residence.In the current Paper Application form based system, he will have to submit 6 Application Forms -

3 Application Forms to get his name Added in the Voter list of General Voter, Teacher and Graduate constituencies as per his New Address.

3 Application Forms to get his name Deleted from the voter list of General Voter, Teacher and Graduate constituencies; in which he was registered earlier.

Due to this complicated process, currently only a very small percentage of Eligible Citizens enrol for Teacher and Graduate Constituencies.

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One Combined Application

5 b) New System: Just 1 Application Form will Process All Requirements of a Citizen

Also, the New IT based System will Remove all Duplication of Effort in the process, for e.g. manual verification of forms, copying data from paper form to other formats.

This will Drastically reduce the effort required by Election Department to process the application form(s) of a citizen. In fact 85% less effort will be required as compared to current system(See Table on Next Page)

In the Proposed New IT based system, he will have to submit just one Application form for all these 6 activities.Such an easy and convenient system will ensure that all Eligible Citizens will get registered under Teacher and GraduateConstituencies also.

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Graduate Constituency

Add to Voter List of New

Area

Delete from Voter List of

Old Area

8 6

8 8

_ _

6 6

5 _

6 6

6 3

2 _5 _

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75

Teacher Constituency


Area


Old Area

8 6

8 8

_ _

6 6

5 _

6 6

6 3

2 _5 _

46 29

75

Activity

General Voter List


Area


Old Area

Verifying forms 8 6

Verifying Proof Docs 8 8

Comparing Original Proof Docs with Scanned Doc

_ _

Making receipt 6 6

Finding Part no and Serial No 5 _

Make a Pink Slip 6 6Data Entry to add to Voter List

6 3

Printing Voter ID card 2 _Distributing Voter ID card. 5 _

Total 46 29

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Current System: Time Required to Process Application forms of 1 Person (in Minutes)

Grand Total 225 Minutes , ie.3 hour 45 minutes

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Activity

General Voter List


Area


Old Area

Verifying forms _ _

Verifying Proof Docs 8 _

Comparing Original Proof Docs with Scanned Doc

5 _

Making receipt _ _

Finding Part no and Serial No _ _

Make a Pink Slip _ _Data Entry to add to Voter List

_ _

Printing Voter ID card 2 _Distributing Voter ID card. 5 _

Total 20 0

20

Graduate Constituency


Area


Old Area

_ _

3 _

3 _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ __ _

6 0

6

Teacher Constituency


Area


Old Area

_ _

3 _

3 _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ __ _

6 0

6

Grand Total 32 minutes

Conclusion New IT system will Need 85% Less Time

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New IT Based S/m: Time Required to Process Application forms of 1 Person (in Minutes)

New IT Based Voter Registration System

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All Potential Applicants

1000

100

MisinformedAs lakhs of citizens register, he also gets informed by his friends that he can also apply and Register as Voter in Pune

Does Not CareOne can now get his Voter Id Card in just 4 days. So, he also decides to Apply

150

Afraid of HasslesNew IT Basedsystem is really citizen friendly and fast. So he also decides to Apply

Aware, Determined & Responsible

Citizen

ConfusedNow there is no confusion, as one can Apply Online. So he also is able to Apply

Missed the ChanceVoter Registration facility is now open for 365 days in the year. So he is also able to register.

150

Lost Confidence in Election DepartmentNow 100 percent Applicants get their name added to the Voter List. So he also decides to Apply again.

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Near Zero Rejection of Application FormsThe Online Application form will AutomaticallyVerify the data entered in Application Form.

It will Highlight the mistakes and give error messages if -1. Information entered is Incomplete2. Information entered is Not Correct3. Required Proof documents are not uploaded

The Application form will get submitted only if it iscorrect in all aspects. So there will be no rejection

of Application forms

1000

Day 1 Simple and Small, Easy to fill Application Form

1. 1 page small form instead of current 3 page form. (Current form has lot of repeated fields which can be removed in the Online form)2. Near each field, clear instructions will be provided about how to fill it.

3. Once address is entered a Google Map window will Pop out. It will highlight the 'Square' (1km * 1km area) in which the Applicant's residence area lies. All the Sections (Housing Societies) in this 'Square' will then be displayed. The Applicant can select his own Section (Housing Society). Then IT system will then automatically provide following info -a) Constituency b) Part Number (Polling Station Number)c) Serial Number

4. Scanned copy of required proof documents (Id proof, address proof and Date of birth proof) should be uploaded

5. Suggestion - A National Unique Identification Number field (Like Aadhaar Card, PAN number) can be a added to this Application form. This will help to ensure that a person will not be able to apply twice for Voter Id Cards and do bogus voting

Day 2First Verification: Comparing Uploaded Proof Docs with Data entered in Application Form

1. It is checked that the Uploaded document is a valid doc for this purpose. For example uploading Driver License as Id proof is valid, but to upload an office Employee Id card as Id proof is not valid.2. It is checked whether the data entered in Application form matches with the info present in Proof doc ( For example Address entered in Application form matches with Address in proof doc)

Failed in VerificationSMS/Email is sent to Applicant to inform him about the Reason for Rejection. Applicant can now login again to Online Application System. He should correct the mistakes in his Application form and submit again.

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Filling and Submitting Application Form & 1st Round of Verification

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Passed in First Verification, SMS/Email Notification Sent

SMS and Email is sent to Applicant to inform that -

1. His Application has got Passed in First Round of Verification

2. This SMS/Email will also have the address and phone number of the Voter Help Center (VHC) where he needs to take his Original proof documents for verification. This VHC will be at a distance of just 2-3 kms from his home.It will be open 7 days a week from 2 pm to 11pm.

Day 3Second Verification: Comparing Uploaded Proof Docs with Original Proof DocumentsIn this step it is checked that the uploaded soft copy of proof doc is same as the Original proof doc brought by the Applicant for verification

This step is necessary, as today it is very easy to create a fake soft copy version of proof document using commonly available image editing software. So the government needs to check the Original proof document

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1000

Successfully Cleared 1st round of Verification

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Successfully Cleared 2nd round of Verification

Day 4 Name Added to Voter List & Voter Id Card Printed

1. Information entered in Election Department's Database & Voter Id Card is 100 percent accurate as all details like -name/age/address etc had been entered by the Applicant himself in the Online form.

2. All information entered in Application form is safely stored in the Database. (In the Old Paper Application form System many important information like Mobile number/Email Id extra was not stored)

3. An Email/SMS notification is sent to the Applicant to inform him about this. The SMS/Email also has the address and phone number of the Voter Help Center (VHC) from where he can collect his Voter Id Card.

100 percent of Applicants receive their Voter Id Cards

Election Dept Database Stores all important information

1. It stores Mobile Number, Email id and Full/Accurate Address of all voters. This gives government the facility to inform voters about any important action, e.g. deletion of their name from voter list.

2. Form 6/7/8/8A submitted by Applicants3. ID, Age and Address Proof docs submitted by Applicants

4. Identity of election dept employees who Approved/ Processed/ Rejected that application form. Details of actions performed by these election department employee.

If complaints come about Large scale Deletion of Genuine Voters or Large scale Addition of Bogus Voters to the voter list;then this facility will allow us to investigate the problem properly. Strict action can be taken against those responsible for such wrong doings. This will ensure that such issues are not repeated in the future.

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Successfully Cleared 2nd round of Verification

Day 4 Name Added to Voter List & Voter Id Card Printed

1. Information entered in Election Department's Database & Voter Id Card is 100 percent accurate as all details like -name/age/address etc had been entered by the Applicant himself in the Online form.

2. All information entered in Application form is safely stored in the Database. (In the Old Paper Application form System many important information like Mobile number/Email Id extra was not stored)

3. An Email/SMS notification is sent to the Applicant to inform him about this. The SMS/Email also has the address and phone number of the Voter Help Center (VHC) from where he can collect his Voter Id Card.

100 percent of Applicants receive their Voter Id Cards

Election Dept Database Stores all important information

1. It stores Mobile Number, Email id and Full/Accurate Address of all voters. This gives government the facility to inform voters about any important action, e.g. deletion of their name from voter list.

2. Form 6/7/8/8A submitted by Applicants3. ID, Age and Address Proof docs submitted by Applicants

4. Identity of election dept employees who Approved/ Processed/ Rejected that application form. Details of actions performed by these election department employee.

If complaints come about Large scale Deletion of Genuine Voters or Large scale Addition of Bogus Voters to the voter list;then this facility will allow us to investigate the problem properly. Strict action can be taken against those responsible for such wrong doings. This will ensure that such issues are not repeated in the future.

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Benefits of

New IT Based Voter

Registration System

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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List1. Time Required To Get Registered As Voter

Up to 1 year Usually the Voter List is updated and Voter ID

card are Printed only once in a year (during Jan-Feb month). So, if you had applied in February 2013, then your name would have got added to voter list only by end of January 2014

You will get your Voter ID card in just 4 days.

2. Voter Registration Drive Duration

Current System New IT Based System

Voter Registration facility is usually available for Only 2 Months in a year (September-October).

Voter Registration facility will be available for365 days in the year.


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List3. Ease of Filling Application Form

Very Complex Currently Govt has very poor maps of Assembly

Constituencies. It is very difficult for general public to identify even their constituency.

Currently the Applicant is expected to fill even his "Polling Booth Number", which is very difficult to find out.

1000's of Applications are Rejected by Election department because this field is not filled.

Simple We NGOs have created high quality maps of each

Constituency using Google Maps. We can provide these maps to Election Department.

Also the complex fields like - Polling Booth Number, Constituency name etc will be automatically filled by the IT system.


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List4. Ease of Submitting Application Form

Multiple Lengthy trips to Election Office are Required

You can easily fill and submit the Application form Online (via Internet), while sitting at home

Currently there are 11 Constituency Level Offices.

60 Voter Help Center (VHC) will be set up.

5. Accessibility of Election Offices

New IT Based SystemCurrent System


All these 11 offices are concentrated in just 2 areas - the Collector Office and the PCMC building.

These VHC offices will be distributed equally across all areas in Pune.

Thus many citizens will have to travel 15-20 kmto reach the Election Office.

Thus a citizen will have to travel less than 3 km to reach the nearest polling booth.

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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List6. Working Hours of Election Office

Election Offices are usually open only from Monday to Friday - 10.30 am to 6 pm. It is very difficult for office goers to come during this time.

Each VHC will be a one room office and will have 4 employees. It could be set up as an additional room in Post Offices. It will be open 7 days a week and 365 days a year. The 3 employees in a VHC will get their weekly off on different days. Thus the office will stay open throughout thewhole week.

The working hours of VHC will be 2pm to 11pm. Housewives/ Women will find the 2pm to 6 pm time period convenient. Office goers will prefer to come in the 6 pm to 11 pm time period.


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List7. Election Department Team Structure

Full Time: 11 Part Time: 4000+

The current system has predominantly Part Timeemployees. Due to this they are themselves not aware of many of the rules an regulations of Voter Registration process. This leads to lot of errors and large number of application forms are wrongly rejected.

Full Time: 240 Part Time: 0

The proposed system will have a smaller but well trained, Full Time staff which has good IT/Computer skills.


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List8. Quality of Service Provided

Very Poor Service

Usually No Acknowledgement Slip is Provided

Excellent Service

Acknowledgement provided by Email and SMS


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No Facility to Track Status of Application Application Status can be Tracked Online

Usually No information is given to Applicant about why there Application was rejected.

If Application rejected then Email & SMS sent toinform about reason for rejection. Applicant can Correct the mistake and Reapply.

Only 60% of the Applicants get their name successfully added to Voter List.

100% applicants get name added to Voter List

Huge amount of error in Applicant detail entered in Voter List - wrong name, surname, age etc. In fact more than 50% of voters in voter list face this problem.

100% accurate details entered – name, age, surname etc

Every Single Address entered in Voter List database is wrong/ incomplete. This happens as government has not added 90-95% of Housing Societies in Pune to their IT system as Sections.

100% applicants get full and correct address entered

names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List9. Notifying/Informing the Applicant

Today the Election Department's database does Not store Phone Number, Email id or Correct Address of the Applicant. So it has no method to notify citizens about important information like – No Alert/Notification is sent to Voter when his

Voter ID Card is Printed or name is added to Voter List.

Phone Number, Email id and Complete/Accurate Address of the Applicant will be Stored in the Database of the Election Department.

Email & SMS Alert sent when name added to Voter List or Voter Id Card is printed


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Due to this people have no Idea about when/where to collect their Voter Id Card and less than 20% of printed Voter ID Cards are collected by citizens.

100% applicants receive their Voter ID Cards

In 2014 Lok Sabha election, more than 1 Lakh voters in Punewere Deprived of their Democratic Right to Vote as their names had been Wrongly Deleted from the Voter list.

Such problem will be avoided in the new system as a Notification/ Alert will be sent to the citizen by ALL 3 modes –SMS, Email and Postal Letter when his name is deleted from the Voter List. The citizen can immediately follow up and ensure that his name is added back to the Voter List before the election.

10. Storing ALL Info related to Additions & Deletions made in Voter List

In the current paper based system, it is Impossibleto Store the information related toaddition/deletion/modification of names, to the Voter List. Examples of such information are -1. Form 6/7/8/8A submitted by Applicants2. ID, Age and Address Proof documents

submitted by Applicants3. Identity of election dept employees who

Approved/ Processed/ Rejected that application form. Details of actions performed by these election department employee.

Even if this information was stored, it would be impossible to pick out the required document from tonnes of stored paper bundles.

All details (Forms 6/7/8/8A, Proof Docs, Election Officer's identity and Action taken by him) will be Safely Stored in the IT based system. The IT based system will also allow us to Easily Access this information at the Click of a button.

Advantage -More than 4 lakh names (25% of entire voter list) were deleted from the voter list of Pune Constituency in just 1 year - 2013. Thousands and even Lakhs of Citizens have complained that their name was wrongly deleted.

This facility will allow us to investigate such problems properly. Strict action can be taken against those responsible for large scale wrong doings. This will ensure that such issues are not repeated in the future.


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11. Enrolment to Graduate Constituency & Teacher Constituency

Very Low Enrolment

There is very Low awareness about this rule. Also citizens need to submit 3 separate application forms to register to General Voter, Graduate and Teacher Constituencies. Citizens get discouraged by so much hassle.

Full Enrolment

Only One simple Application form needs to be submitted Online to register to all 3 types of constituency.

Maharashtra has a 78 seat Vidhan Parishad. It is equivalent to Rajya Sabha at national level. Of these 78 seats, 14 seats are elected by Teachers and Graduate citizens of Maharashtra. To vote for these seats a person needs to enrol in appropriate Graduate & Teacher Constituencies.


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List12. Efficiency of Voter Registration Process

Manual, Duplication of Effort and Error ProneProcess

Currently if a Citizen changes his address and wants to transfer his General, Graduate and Teacher Constituency registration; then he needs to submit 6 Separate Application forms. (3 to add name in new constituencies and 3 to delete name from old constituencies)

Due to a Manual, Repetitive process Election Department needs to put nearly 4 hours of effortto process these 6 applications from a single citizen.

Automated, Well Designed Process resulting in Zero Errors

A citizen will need to submit Only 1 Application Formto transfer his General, Graduate and Teacher Constituency registration.

Using the Automated IT system, all the requests of an Applicant can be processed with just 30 minutes of effort


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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List13. Environment Friendliness

1.2 crore pages* used per yearThis will cost 1 crore rupees1500 trees are Cut down to make this much paperHuge amount of space and effort is required to store this paper and to transport it.

(* Based on 12 lakh citizens Applying in 1 year)

Zero paper required

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names of Bogus Voters from the Voter List14. Number of Applicants in 1 year

1.1 Lakh ApplicantsDue to all the problems with the current system (as mentioned above), only around 10 percent of eligible citizens apply to register as Voters.

10 Lakh Applicants(i.e. it is Expected to Increase by nearly 10 times)


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Modernizing our Voter Registration System to Awaken Indian Democracy

Government & Nonprofit

new system

voter list11

voter list4

voter list6

vhc offices

room office

office goers

hours of election office7