Election duty personnel in India may utilize the postal ballot facility in 2024

Voting via postal ballot as “absentee voters” would be available to those who, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI), are engaged in critical services for the next Lok Sabha and Assembly byelections in the state.

This was said by Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg at a meeting of nodal officials from many departments, whose staff members were informed that they were under the vital services category. Employees who were certified by the nodal officers as being “on duty” on election day and who sent in form 12(D) to their respective assistant returning officers (AROs) by May 12 would be eligible for the postal ballot option, he added.

He continued by saying that 872 of the 1,181 postal ballots that were provided to voters for vital services during the 2022 Assembly elections were returned.

He stated that the following individuals are qualified to vote by postal ballot: physicians, paramedics, ambulance services, firefighters, essential duty staff, drivers, conductors, milk supply service staff of cooperative societies and milk federation, media representatives, pump operators and turners, electricians, and linemen. These individuals do not qualify for postal ballots, he added. Additionally, during these elections, the Jail personnel deputed on essential duty was included to the list for the first time.

Officials from these groups, according to the CEO, must file form 12(D).

He also said that the location, dates, and hours of the postal ballot voting facility will be provided to the workers providing critical services via SMS on their cell phone number. These personnel had applied for the postal ballot paper facility.