Vellore officials readying ballot boxes for rural bodies polls

The Vellore district administration plans to conduct an awareness programme among rural voters on using paper ballots, an official revealed. Ballot boxes, which have not been used for quite some time, were pulled out of storage by officials to check their condition. While urban local body voters will have to cast only one vote to select the local ward councillor, —the chairman being elected by elected ward members/councilors — voters in village panchayats will have to cast as many as four votes, which include that for the village panchayat president, panchayat ward member, panchayat union ward member and district panchayat ward member.

While the draft electoral rolls are ready, officials are now working out the number of polling booths and ballot boxes needed for the rural body polls. “This is due to the current pandemic situation in which a polling booth will accommodate only 1,000 voters. Also as rural voters will have to cast 4 votes the number of ballot boxes depending on the number of voters in each polling booth is being calculated,” an official said. Asked if the district had enough ballot boxes, the official said, “that will not be an issue as we can get ballot boxes from other districts if necessary as only the nine districts are slated to go to the polls and not the entire state.” A former panchayat president said, “the number of village panchayats in Vellore panchayat union will be less compared to their numbers 15 years ago as some panchayats have been subsumed by the Vellore Corporation. Hence, there will be enough ballot boxes to meet the poll needs.” However, the exact position will be known only after the final electoral rolls are released, the official added.