“I would like to vote, I just don’t know who the right candidate is”
“I have an Aadhar card, a PAN card and even a passport. What do I need a voter id for? I don’t want to vote!”
“I don’t even what ward I am from and getting information is so complicated!”
I have heard and have even said variations of these statements at some or the other point of my life. But guys, the state election commission is listening to us and it has started taking steps be youth centric, transparent and accessible to all. They want to reach out and connect with us, to ensure that the elections witness a large and informed voter turnout as compared to the past; and has given us the power to ensure that the elections are fought freely.
In the past 1 year, they have launched 3 different apps that would be useful for the tech savvy millenials like you and me to understand the electoral process.
The FAQ App
The innovation that I find to be the most useful is their mobile app which contains answers to almost 2500 FAQ’s on local body elections and the various Acts associated with. You could download the app here to get all your questions answered: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crystalhitech.faq
True Voter App
Along with FAQ’s the SEC has come up with the ‘True Voter’ app which serves the State Election Commission of Maharashtra through its key functionality of enabling a person to search for the name of the voter in voter list assembly wise, local body wise from voter list database and to keep the search result offline as internet connectivity is always the problem in remote area
The top 5 features of the True Voter app according to me are:
- Voter’s List Search showing his Assembly, Part, Serial, Local Body Ward, Polling Booth and Booth Address
- Navigation via Google maps to the Polling Booth
- KYC (Know Your Candidates): To get profile of contesting candidates
- Voter’s Voice: To share expectation & problem of ward with the contesting candidate’s
- To get the election results
The CoP App
We have heard of political parties using unfair means to woo voters like giving out cash payments to gifts to people in their locality. Some candidates don’t stop at anything. While the election staff cannot be present everywhere to monitor these unlawful activities, vigilant citizens like you and me can instantly capture the wrongful activities of candidates and upload the image. The app will forward the image and details to all the officers within 2 km radius of the coordinates of the complainant and the site to ensure that the the necessary action is taken.
The MSEC has not stopped with their app launches; they have deiced to reach out to voters using social media and I am proud to say that Maharashtra has their Election Commission’s presence on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maharashtrasec/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaharashtraSEC/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/maharashtrasec
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBecPYpVQ_1P8-ZqMUlGA1w
The MSEC has done its bit to get us to vote. It is high time you and I did the same. Don’t you agree?
Share your thoughts on the innovations by MSEC with me below.
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Voting is really important and we should really value our vote. This is a really good reminder for the younger generations.
Timely post! The first time when we cast our vote its just such a thrilling feeling!
Social media and apps are really the way to get millennials to get involved in elections. These look like very useful apps. Selling votes should really stop.
It's nice of you to be championing people to vote and make the right choice. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself and people vote for the wrong people like USA~ 😛