Karnataka assembly polls: Voting for senior citizens, disabled to begin from today

MYSURU: The voting process for senior citizens aged 80 and above, and people with disability having opted for home voting through the ballot, will commence from Saturday.
A total 2,806 are eligible, including 2,404 senior voters in the age group, and 402 physically challenged voters have opted for the facility created by the Election Commission (EC).
This is for the first time that the EC has come up with the initiative, to ensure that no one misses voting due to their inability to visit polling stations. Mysuru deputy commissioner and district election officer KV Rajendra said that the challenge is to ensure secrecy of voting, and to complete the task without any hindrance. A total 135 teams comprising seven members each, will visit the doorsteps of voters between 9 am and 5 pm, to facilitate their voting at their registered addresses. Prior to the visit, messages will be sent to the relatives of the voters, through booth-level officers.
In case the voters are not available during the visit of the team members, including the videographer to record the proceedings, the team will give them another opportunity. If again they fail to be present at the registered address on the next day, the voter may lose his right to vote. Such voters can’t vote at the booth too, explained the DC.
KR Nagara has the highest number of such voters at 576, including 499 senior citizens, and HD Kote constituency has just 37 voters, including 14 physically challenged people. About 687 public servants opted for postal ballot voting, at the postal voting facilitation centre from 9 am and 5 pm between May 2 and 4.