Lok Sabha 2019 elections see massive rise in service voters

NEW DELHI: The turnout percentage among service voters — comprising Army and Central para-military forces as well as government officials serving abroad — recorded a massive jump to 60.14% in general election 2019 from just 4% in 2014 polls, the Election Commission said on Sunday.
Compared to 13,27,627 number of service electors registered for last general election in 2014, a record highest number of 18,02,646 service electors were enrolled in 2019. This, EC said, was enabled by the dedicated portal https://www.servicevoter.eci.nic.in for online registration. Service voters were sent postal ballots electronically one way to save processing time, resources and avoid human errors.
Out of the total number of service electors who enrolled in in 2019 general election, 10,16,245 were from ministry of defence, 7,82,595 from ministry of home affairs (Central Armed Police Forces); 3,539 from ministry of external affairs and 267 from state police. Accordingly, over the seven phases spanning the poll, a total of 18,02,646 postal ballots were dispatched electronically using the flagship IT programme – ETPBS. In return 10,84,266 e-postal ballots were received, indicating 60.14% turnout.
Service voter turnout in 2014 was only 4%.
ETPBS is a fully secured system, having two security layers. Secrecy of voting is maintained through the use of OTP and PIN and no duplication of postal ballot cast is possible due to the unique QR Code. Through this system the service voters cast their vote on an electronically received postal ballot, from anywhere outside their constituency, thus reducing the chances of losing the voting opportunity.