Many voters eligible to vote by postal ballots fail to vote

Thiruvananthapuram: Large number of voters, especially in the armed forces, who are eligible to exercise their franchise through postal ballots, fail to vote in the elections for various reasons.

Balloting Data show that a vast majority of persons who were eligible for voting through postal ballots either did not or could not vote in the Parliament elections in 2014. In the case of armed forces, there were reports that the postal ballots, in many cases, did not reach them in time.

Besides members of armed forces and their wives, voters eligible for votes include officials on election duty. The State had nearly 75000 service voters in 2014. The number of persons on election duty was even higher. However, only 35487 postal ballots had been cast.

Of the postal ballots cast, about 8.5 per cent were declared invalid. Interestingly, of the 532 postal votes cast in Malappuram constituency, only one was invalid. In the neighbouring Ponnani constituency, just three of the 276 postal votes were invalid.

On the other hand, Alathur (SC) constituency had the highest percentage of invalid votes—about 20 per cent. Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Wayanad, Palakkad and Thrissur too had high percentage of invalid votes (around 15 per cent). Kottayam, Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram were among constituencies with low percentage of invalid votes (less than one per cent).

The highest number of service voters was from Alappuzha constituency (9585), followed by Mavelikkara (SC) constituency (9430). The lowest was in Malappuram (726), followed by Ponnani (758). The highest number of postal ballots was cast in Alappuzha (3647) and the lowest in Ponnani.