ECI web link comes handy for agents to get voter details

“I did not receive my booth slip at home. During 2019 general election, I had to wait almost 20 minutes to get my booth slip from the agent, who had to go through the big voter’s list. While I assumed that the same would happen this election, too, I was surprised to see the agent getting the information from the website using his smartphone,” said S Anand, who cast his vote at a booth in Anakaputhur government high school.

As booth agents, all political parties deployed youth who are well-versed in handling the gadgets. “The move to deploy youth worked out very well. Also, downloading details from the Election Commission’s website was very fast. There was no delay though it was used by lakhs of people,” said M Karthikeyan, the booth agent of a political party. N Velayathum, a senior citizen who went with his wife to vote, said he himself downloaded the polling booth information from the Election Commission’s website. “I knew about the website because of social media,” he said.

A ward counsellor of a political party in Pallavaram said the party appointed five booth agents who were provided with latest smartphones to download booth slip. He claimed that his party, which appointed agents across the Chengalpattu district, had provided mobile phones to them to help the voters.