If online voting is allowed in Lok Sabha Election 2024, what are the benefits?
In the Indian Lok Sabha Election 2024, online voting is not allowed. Make sure you travel to the specific booth during the specified 12-hour slot and vote. If you are travelling or located away from the booth, hard luck. You can transfer your money online, but not your vote.
In other blogs we have discussed why you are not allowed to vote online. Let’s discuss how India can benefit if we all are allowed to vote online.
Voter Turnout
In the last two Lok Sabha Elections, the average voter turnout was around 67% and it is expected to remain the same in Indian Lok Sabha Election 2024 also. Which means, of the around 100 crore eligible voters, only around 67 crores would be able to vote and 33 crores would be denied their right to vote.
If online voting or eVoting option is provided to voters, the voter turnout is expected to increase to 90 Crore+ or more than 90%. Additional 24 crore+ voters would be able to vote. The winning party won 31.34% voters in 2014 and 37.4% votes in 2019. Additional 24% voters voting can potentially have a huge impact on the result of the elections.
Cost: 90%+ saving
India spent more than $5 Billion or Rs. 40,000 crores in 2014 and 2019 elections. The spent in 2024 would be even higher. For those who doubt these number please note:
- More than 10 lakh booths will be created. Booths will need electricity, furniture, security,
stationary, basic facilities like washroom, drinking water and food for the election officials and
security personnel. For simplicity if we divided the total cost by number of booths, per booth cost comes
to Rs. 4 Lakh. - More than 1 crore people would be involved in election management. All these personnel would need food,
transportation, stay and other facilities. For simplicity if we divided the total cost by number of
people, per person cost comes to Rs. 40,000 / per person. - More than 20 Lakh EVM machines and 10 lakh VVPAT machines would be required.
- Armed forces would be employed for security and logistics.
- Teachers and other government servants would be diverted from their main duty to election duty.
- Counting would be done manually in more than 1000 centres.
- Postal ballot would be sent out to lakhs of voters.
- Election would go on for 80 days.
Online voting can help save 90%+ of the cost. Online voting will have substantially lower cost as there is no need to set up the booth. No need of EVM machines and VVPAT machines, voters will vote via their own mobiles. People required for election management would be few hundred and not in lakhs. Election process would be completed in 3 days. Counting would be automatic without any manual intervention.
Just imagine what Rs. 36,000 crores saved from election cost can do for India. Kilometres of road we can build, number of fighter jets we can buy, number of mouths we can feed, number of schools we can build!
Time: 90%+ saving
The Lok Sabha election 2024 was announced on 23rd March 2024 and result announcement date is 4th June 2024. For 73 days, election code of conduct will apply which means for 73 days the country would on a stand still. No major decisions can be taken by the government during this period. Even the private sector will have a wait and watch policy due to political uncertainty.
The loss of GDP during the period is a humongous and unfathomable. But also appreciate the loss of education during the period for students in government schools where teachers are absent due to election duty.
With online voting platform like Right2Vote, the same election can be held in 3 days. Counting is automatic and instant. So, if the voters are given an option to vote from 6 am on 19th April to 6 pm on 21st April, at 6.01 pm on 21st April the election commission can announce the results!
Human effort: 99%+ saving
In an Indian Lok Sabha election more than 1 crore people are deployed and election goes on for more than 70 days. Assuming 50% time each person is deployed, man-days lost is 35 crores.
With online voting few hundred people would be deployed for a week or so. With online voting total man-days required would be less than 7000!
Security & Transparency:10X better
In booth-based voting, voter is manually matched against the picture on his ID card and allowed to vote. Generally, the picture on the ID card is very old and the ID card is generally it not great shape. This means we have to trust the decision of election officer who is generally not very strict. Hence, we see lot of complaints of false voting. In online voting all voters are authentication by Aadhaar based biometric or OTP authentication. This ensures hundred percent accuracy of authentication.
In booth-based voting the booths are spread across the country including remote and sensitive areas. There is always risk of booth capture, law and order issue. In online voting all data is stored in central server which is not only encrypted but also protected by digital security like firewalls and physical security of the highest grade.
In booth based voting the representatives of the candidates sit in the booth and keep taking manual notes of who all have voted. In online voting the system can real time provide data of who all have voted along with their Aadhaar based photographs. The complete digital process permits lot of analytics like male female voting ratio, age wise voter turnout. These analytics are not easy with manual records and booth-based voting.
Voter convenience: Cost and time saving
In booth based voting the voter has to travel to the booth, stand in a queue to vote. In the process he might spend money for transportation and time for travelling and for standing in the queue.
On the other hand, in online voting, they can vote directly via their mobile phone from anywhere within 2 minutes. If 90 crore voter is spending Rs. 50 on an average for travelling to booth and 2 hours in travelling and standing in queue, the saving to voters would be in excess of 4,500 crores and 180 hours!
Conclusion
It is no brainer to upgrade from booth-based voting to online voting. Not only there is substantial increase in voter turnout due to online voting which will make the Indian democracy stronger, there is also humongous saving in cost, time and human effort.
Why denying online voting option is equivalent to denying right to vote?
Online voting is not allowed in Lok Sabha Election 2024 – WHY?
eVoting Website For Employee Union Elections
