Elections are approaching, and the Election Commission of India is working diligently to issue voter ID cards to all eligible voters. This is a relatively new requirement in India, where having a voter ID card is now mandatory to vote. The government frequently announces that anyone without a voter ID card will be barred from voting. However, just days before the elections, the Election Commission often reports that individuals without voter IDs can still participate, due to their inability to reach everyone in time. Despite substantial expenditure on this project, the results have been far from successful.
Alarmingly, nearly 50% of the voter ID cards issued contain incorrect information or printing errors. For example, Amar Ujala, a prominent Hindi newspaper, reported today (08/04/09) that the Election Commission issued a voter ID card to someone named Ballu from Muradabad, with his age mistakenly recorded as 822 years old. Ballu, having received this erroneous card, faces a dilemma: with elections just around the corner, he is unlikely to have the time to rectify the mistake before voting. He will use the card as-is and vote as an 822-year-old. Similarly, voter ID cards were issued to individuals named Nanhi and Khurseed, inaccurately recorded as two years old.
They, too, will use their incorrect IDs to cast votes. Another significant error involved the issuance of 424 voter ID cards to one address, implying that there are 424 residents from the same family living at that address, which is clearly incorrect. When I received my first voter ID card, I found that my father’s name was printed incorrectly, and my address was wrong. I was advised to wait until a month before the next elections, which would be five years later, to address the issue. Despite being issued by the government, voter ID cards are often not accepted as valid proof of residence or identity by any institution, whether public or private, due to these persistent errors.
On March 24th, the Times of India reported a similar mistake where a voter ID card was issued to a twelve-year-old girl. It is concerning that while the Indian government struggles with basic tasks like issuing accurate voter ID cards, it plans to build nuclear power plants. If the government cannot manage something as fundamental as voter identification, it raises doubts about its capability to handle complex and critical projects like nuclear power. The frequent errors and inefficiencies in the voter ID system suggest that India may not yet be fully prepared to tackle such high-stakes projects, where there is little room for error and significant challenges in managing nuclear waste and safety.