BIG STORIES

If you are a citizen of India and have attained the age of 18 on the qualifying date of January 1 of the applying year you are eligible to enrol. A recent change has also permitted those above the age of 17 to pre-register as voters.

https://www.nvsp.in/ has all the answers to your queries, these may include registration of new voter/due to shifting from another constituency, applying online, deletion or objection in electoral roll. You may also use the ECI website https://eci.gov.in/ or the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation website, http://ecisveep.nic.in/ , also known as SVEEP, for all voter literature.

Enrollment can happen only at the place of your residence, not another place. In such cases, you will need to fill Form 8A. For such changes one needs to be write an application to Electoral Registration Officer of the constituency.To apply online you can download the form from NVSP portal https://www.nvsp.in/ or from the ECI website https://eci.gov.in/.

EVMs were first used in Kerala's Parvur assembly in 1982. It has a control unit manned by the polling officer and a voting or balloting unit placed inside the voting cubicle. The polling officer releases the ballot by pressing the ballot button on the control unit, allowing the voter to cast his vote by pressing the blue button on the balloting unit against the candidate's name, symbol. EVMs run on battery and can be used to record a maximum of 2,000 votes.

Brought in on September 2013 by the Supreme Court, Nota or or "None of the Above" lets the voter not choose all the candidates contesting. Nota button pressed indicates the voter has not chosen to vote for any of the party. Do note that Nota does not give the voter the right to reject, meaning the candidate with the maximum number of votes wins the election irrespective of the number of NOTA votes polled.

VVPAT helps verify your vote. VVPAT or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail gives an instant feedback of your vote and can be accessed by polling officials, not you. The VVPAT machine prints a slip that has the name of the candidate and the election symbol and automatically drops it in a sealed box.

Once a voter has cast his vote on the EVM it gets registered and it is not possible to press any other button again.

Once the voter presses the button against his choice of candidtae, the lamp against it turns red and a long beep is heard. There is an audio and visual authentication. A paper slip from the VVPAT is useful for authentication.

The principle of 'one man, one vote' is sacrosanct. As soon as a particular button is pressed, the vote is recorded and the machine gets locked.

There is no provision to further press any other button and no further vote will be recorded.

All you have to do is check for your name, which can be done

1) By visiting The National Voters' Service portal — https://www.nvsp.in or National Voter Services Portal's Electoral Search page (NVSP).

2) Post that use your Electors Photo Identification Card for EPIC number to find your details.

Voting is an inalienable right and if you satisfy the following conditions you are eligible to vote.

(a) Each Citizen who is 18 years of age on the qualifying date which is first January of the concerned year, except if excluded is qualified to be enrolled.

(b) Enrollment only at an ordinary place of residence.

(c) The name should not be present in the electoral roll anywhere.

(d) An Overseas Indian who has been at the passport address as an ordinary resident.

(e) Service Voters deemed to be ordinarily resident at their home address.

There is no specific provision that allows you to vote during office hours.

Generally, companies allow voters to come late or leave early on polling day. The rules, however, vary from company to company.