Get your voter ID card if you still haven’t, plead informed residents
By WHITEFIELD RISING
If you are unhappy with the present and want a significant change in the future, you have to vote in this year’s elections. It doesn’t matter if the quality of the candidate is stellar or not. What matters is that you vote and by voting, you can hold the person accountable.
In the last election, the winning candidates won by slim margins… as low as 125 votes. Even Whitefield MLA won by just 6149 votes. So, we are frittering away our power in some sense by not collectively exercising it. The more involved we are, the more we make an effort to get out and vote and make our voices count.
In a large apartment complex in Whitefield, we found that while 6,000 residents were eligible to vote, only 1,000 were registered to vote in their Bangalore constituency. And of these, only 200 came out and cast their vote. Given the margins, this community alone could have swung the election. This is the power we have but we are choosing not to exercise it.
To get your voter ID, if you don’t have it yet, first check which form you need. Did you ever register to vote anywhere in India before? No? Use Form 6. Yes – Use Form 8A Transposition (moving residence within the same constituency). Use this powerpoint presentation to help you register.
How do you know if your name is on the voter list? Go to this link:
If you are searching by name, enter only the first few letters so that if they have mis-spelt your name, a list will come up and you can look for your entry. Click on ‘View Details’ next to your name to get your ‘Part Number’ and ‘Serial number’ as well as the location of your booth.
If you have applied but did not make it to the voter list, write to: kar1950@karnataka.gov.in or call 1950. If you have an acknowledgement for the form you submitted and it was in the last two months, go to the BBMP Ward office where you submitted it and check with them. If you applied a long time ago and/or you don’t have any acknowledgement or online reference for your form, you have to submit the form again.
If you haven’t got your actual voter card yet, you can just print it out and vote with any other government-issued photo ID such as Aadhaar, PAN, Driver’s License or Passport. You don’t need an actual voter ID card to vote.
If you want a voter card, you have to get it from a Bengaluru One center near you. Show them your name and inclusion details and they will print a card for you – a valid voter ID Card must have a hologram issued by the ECI.
© Oorvani Foundation/Open Media Initiative. Also available online at citizenmatters.in
