Migrant voters, tech snags slow in SIR across AP

Vijayawada: Frequent technical glitches in the Election Commission’s online portal and the challenge of tracing lakhs of migrant voters are slowing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across Andhra Pradesh. Although the online facility was introduced to allow electors to submit Enumeration Forms (EFs) remotely, many voters living away from their native places say repeated portal failures are forcing them to return home to complete the process before the July 14 deadline.Across the state, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conducting door-to-door verification are encountering locked houses and outdated addresses as large numbers of voters have migrated to cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Visakhapatnam for employment, education and business. In many villages, neighbours inform officials that entire families have relocated, making verification and collection of EFs a cumbersome exercise.Many electors attempting online submission complain of OTP verification failures, document upload issues and sudden logouts before the process is completed. With no reliable alternative, several employees and migrant workers have travelled back to their native villages to submit forms physically, resulting in increased crowds at facilitation centres and BLO camps.Prakasam district is among the regions facing these challenges.

Many residents from upland areas of Prakasam and Markapuram districts, who migrated to Hyderabad and Vijayawada for work, are rushing back home amid concerns over the deadline. “After failing to submit the EF online for nearly 10 days, I travelled back with my family to file it physically,” said V Rajeswara Rao of Pedda Dornala, now based in Hyderabad.BLOs are also grappling with errors in the 2002 electoral rolls.

A retired govt employee from Ramnagar found his wife’s name missing from the list and located it only after a week-long search in the Markapuram electoral roll, where the family had lived briefly. “In several instances, family members’ names were split across different polling stations. We handle only specific booths, making it difficult to trace some names and leaving us to face public anger,” said Vani, a BLO.In Guntur, a BLO was found with nearly 600 undistributed EFs during an inspection.

The official reportedly broke into tears, saying repeated visits failed to locate the electors.Aam Aadmi Party state vice-president Dr T Seva Kumar urged voters not to delay submission of EFs and appealed to relatives and neighbours of migrant electors to help BLOs verify their details. He said timely submission would help accelerate digitisation of electoral records.