LS Elections 2019: In A First, Army Men Posted In Far-Flung Areas To Vote Through Digital Ballot Papers 

To provide the personnel of the armed forces and Central Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) with better and speedy voting facilities, The Election Commission of India (ECI) has come up with electronic ballot papers for the first time in Lok Sabha elections, reports Indian Express.

Under the new system, after registering themselves via electronically transmitted postal ballot and a web portal, the service men are required to download the ballot papers using OTPs. After this, the service voters have to fill the declarations forms and get it attested by their unit commanders, before sending them in sealed envelops without any requirement of postal stamps.

A total of 16.62 lakh service men serving at various far flung and remote areas of the country are now registered as service voters. During the 2014 elections, the same numbers stood at 13.27 lakh.

Ever since the new measure became functional in 2016, the service voters have exercised their franchisee through speed posts. Thus ensuring the speedy reach of their choices to the returning officers to make the counting process easier. The same process used to take a cumbersome seven days in the earlier process, when ordinary posts were used. The returning officers of the polling booths would post the ballot papers to the service voters. The men in uniforms were then required to mark their votes and send back to the ROs in self addressed envelopes.