CHENNAI : City voters faced hardships as election officials failed to distribute booth slips to residents in many parts of Chennai. Despite possessing a photo ID and waiting in the queue, many voters were asked to obtain booth slips and return to cast their ballot. Arguments broke out in several places over such confusions.
Office of the Chief Electoral Officer received several complaints in this regard. In pockets of Thiruvanmiyur, Adambakkam, Madipakkam and Nanganallur, people who gathered in large numbers to cast their votes in the morning, returned dejected. The polling personnel, they said, found it difficutl to search their serial number without the booth slip.
“As I did not get my booth slip, I check on the election commission website which showed my centre as a school. But when I went there, I was told to go to a different booth, about two km away. Several people were running around searching for their booths,” says city resident M Santhosh.
In many areas such as Chrompet, Pallavaram, Hastinapuram and Thidir Nagar in Thousand lights, corporation or revenue department officials failed to distribute the slips. As a result, voters had to approach the party agents. In many places, party functionaries seemed more aware of methods to help voters.
In certain areas, while the ROs were unable to locate polling booths of voters who had just their ID and no booth slip, party functionaries came forward to help. They searched on the ECI app using the voter ID number to guide voters to the right booth. “We had asked DEOs not to turn away voters without booth slips as it’s not an identification document,” said CEO Satyabatra Sahoo.