Mock trials for remote voting facility for electors would begin soon, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has said.
In his message to mark the 11th National Voters’ Day, he said a search project on remote voting using cutting-edge technology has already begun.
“There has been an honest progress during this regard and mock trials would begin soon,” Arora said on Sunday, adding the poll panel’s proposal to increase postal ballot facility for overseas Indian voters was under active consideration of the Law Ministry.
The committee has collaborated with IIT-Madras to figure on a replacement technology which can allow electors to vote from faraway cities without getting to designated polling place of their constituencies.
Explaining the ‘blockchain’ technology involved within the project, former Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena had earlier said the concept may be a “two-way electronic electoral system during a controlled environment on white-listed IP devices on dedicated Internet lines enabled with biometric devices and an internet camera”.
Saxena, however, made it clear that voters will need to reach a delegated venue during a pre-decided period of your time to be ready to use this facility.
“It doesn’t mean voting from home. After a voter’s identity is established by the system, a blockchain-enabled personalised e-ballot paper are going to be generated.
“When the vote is cast, the ballot are going to be securely encrypted and a blockchain hashtag generated. This hashtag notification are going to be sent to varied stakeholders, during this case the candidates and political parties,” the official said.
The encrypted remote votes so cast will once more be validated at the pre-counting stage to make sure that they need neither been decrypted nor tampered with or replaced.
“Suppose there’s a Lok Sabha election and a Chennai voter is in Delhi. rather than returning to choose his or her constituency or missing out on voting, the voter can reach a pre-designated spot found out by the EC, say in Connaught Place, during a particular time window and may cast his vote,” Saxena had said.
