Only 7,554 out of the 1.1 lakh voters aged over 85 years in Bengaluru have opted to use postal ballots in the upcoming April 26 Lok Sabha elections, accounting for a mere 7% participation rate. Officials from the election wing of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) attribute this low turnout to a lack of awareness and a preference among many elderly voters to physically visit polling stations to cast their votes.
The Election Commission had provided an opportunity for these voters to file Form 12D, a letter of intimation to the assistant returning officer as an absentee voter, by April 2 to vote through postal ballots. However, the response rate remained significantly low.
Apart from elderly voters, there are also 30,693 specially challenged voters in Bengaluru, but only 314 of them have registered for postal ballots. In an effort to reach out to eligible voters, BBMP officials have assigned a team for election duty to visit the homes of senior citizens and specially challenged voters who have registered for postal ballots between April 13 and April 18. During these visits, officials will inform voters of the scheduled time and date for issuing and collecting filled-in postal ballots.
