KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India is likely to introduce booth app in the forthcoming Bengal assembly polls in an effort to weed out bogus voters, avoid duplicate voting and give accurate details of the polling process every two hours.
Bengal will be the first state where this app is being planned to be introduced in a full-fledged manner.
The functional process consists of the creation of an encrypted QR code on the photo voter slips. The booth-level officer scans the code and allows entry of voters whose names are listed. The code is scanned again to verify the identity of the voter before allowing him/her to poll. The recorded entries are then transmitted back to the EC’s central server. The returning officer gets to view the dashboard about real-time voter turnout and other poll events.
“The polling process requires manual search of name of electors and this is time-consuming. There are multiple errors due to incorrect entries. Later on, there is a lot of hassle on reconciliation of the figures from EVM to the turnout. The booth app helps in identification of voters using encrypted QR code from the digital marked copy of the electors,” a senior EC official explained.
The multifunctional app will also help in providing advance queue information and real-time turnout information to voters and officials.
“The booth app can auto-detect duplicate entries and prevent repeat voters from entering the polling station. Whenever there is a duplicate entry, the polling official will get a loud sound on his mobile phone,” the official added.
The app was piloted in Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh) in 5 polling stations, 3 assembly constituencies (Samastipur, Kasba Peth and Phagwara) of Maharashtra, Bihar and Punjab and thereafter introduced in 10 ACs of Jharkhand in November 2019.
For the first time, the poll panel is thinking of introducing this application in the assembly polls of Bengal. “We hope this will help in free and fair polls,” the official said.
The booth app is configured to connect to the central ECI server in a minimalistic way and transmits the data in an encrypted manner. This helps in giving meaningful information about gender-wise polling, age-wise polling, speed of polling, traffic during the day and other poll-related events and incidences. This will help election officers in taking the right decision at the right time.