Now 17-year-olds can register for Voter ID; registrations every quarter
Provision to link AADHAR with electoral rolls, but not mandatory
Source - ECI
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed regional offices to facilitate youngsters register for Voter ID ahead of their turning 18 years of age.
Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Shri Anup Chandra Pandey have directed the CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all States to enable tech-enabled solutions so that the youth can file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates — 1 April, 1 July and 1 October and not just 1 January.
For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by 1 April, 1 July and 1 October of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll, said a statement by the ECI.
Currently, revision of electoral rolls is done just once a year on 1 January, which means a large number of youth who completed 18 years after 1 January had to wait for Special Summary Revision of the next year for enrolment and were not able to participate in elections held in the intervening period.
The ECI has also made the registration forms more user-friendly and simpler. The newforms will come into force on 1 August 2022, said the ECI. However, all applications in old forms, received before 1 August 2022 will be processed, and there would be no need to file application in new forms.
The ECI has made provisions to link AADHAR with electoral roll data. A new Form-6B has also been introduced for collecting Aadhaar number of existing electors. However, no application would be denied and no entries in electoral roll would be deleted if one is unable to furnish his/her Aadhaar number.
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