90,000 voter applications to be cleared in Maharashtra by month-end

PUNE: State election officials are all set to clear as many as 90,000 pending applications for voter registration and correction by the end of this month.
Officials from the election department on Thursday said that these applications were pending due to a technical issue arising due to the software update. Citizens have been applying online to register as new voters, but were unable to do so for over two months due to this technical problem.
State Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Deshpande told TOI, "The new software has started working and we are in the process of shifting the data onto it. We should be able to shift all online applications in a week's time and clear them by June-end."
He added that all the applications that have been received online and offline will be taken care of, and no form will be deleted. A time frame of the next three weeks has been set for the electoral registration office.
Many first-time voters and those requiring corrections in their names and addresses had been applying for the same, but received no intimation from the election office in question.
Election officials confirmed that if the applicant has entered their mobile number in the application, they should get an intimation of the form being processed shortly.
For instance, Seema Oak had applied as a fresh voter after having shifted to Pune city. Ahead of the civic body elections and general elections next year, she is hoping to find her name in the voters list.
"There should be a proper mechanism whereby we get a clear intimation about our application being accepted," she said.
Many like Oak have even re-registered after not getting any intimation regarding their previous application. "Normally, after such an application, a receipt message is received on the registered mobile number. However, I did not even get that," she added.
"I plan to reapply again," said another such voter, Mukul Borkar, who does not want to take any chance with his application.
Advising against this trend, a senior official from the election department said that all the applications will be included as they were registered with the earlier software.
"Shifting of forms to the new software will take a week or 10 days. However, it will be done - citizens need not file the applications again," said the official.
Processing stalled, but special drives continue
The irony, said many applicants, is that the state has been conducting special drives for new voter registrations. Amidst this, the lack of communication on previous application has left citizens confused about the entire process.
For instance, a recent assessment showed that youth voters registered in the state have dropped. The report by the chief electoral office said that less than 10% of the youth in the 18-19 age bracket are registered as voters in Maharashtra.
Deshpande said that like last year, they will request college managements to motivate students to file new voter application forms to register as first-time voters.
Meanwhile, the election office is also carrying out a pre-summary revision drive from June to October, wherein it is verifying and checking polling stations and facilities, and shifting voters out of polling stations that have more than 1,500 people under them. Such voters will then be assigned to new booths.
There are a total of 95,000 polling stations across the state. Around 1 lakh booth-level officers (BLOs) are also slated to visit homes in a month-long drive from October-November, before final voters' lists are printed on January 5, 2024.
Besides this, a special drive will also be conducted for third gender registrations and that of differently abled voters. The number of transgender voters has hit around 5,000 in the state, and officials said they expect the numbers to go higher, with an estimated population in lakhs across Maharashtra.