BHUBANESWAR: Around 3.35 crore voters will exercise their franchise in the four phase simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha, the dates for which were announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday.
Chief electoral officer (CEO) Odisha Nikunja Bihari Dhal said the voter count of the state which was at 3,32,36,360 at the time of release of the final electoral roll in January first week has now increased to 3,34,73,561. He said the figure includes a little over 1.69 crore male and 1.65 lakh female voters. The number of transgender voters is 3,438, while there are 5.19 lakh PwD voters in the state. The voter list also includes 3.02 lakh voters in the age group of 85 years and above and 184 from overseas.
Dhal said the number of young electors in the age group of 18-19 years has reached close to eight lakh, a record for the state. The percentage of young electors that constitutes around 2.38 per cent of the total votes, is even more than the national average, he said.
The CEO said continuous updation of the voter list has helped in improving gender ratio in the electoral roll with the number of female for every 1,000 male voters increasing to 974 against the previous ratio of 972.
The voters as per the instruction of ECI are required to produce EPIC card or any one of other valid document as listed by the Commission including Aadhaar card, MGNREGA job card, bank/postal passbook with photograph, health insurance smart card issued by Ministry of Labour, driving licence, PAN card, passport and pension document with photograph. The CEO said most of the voters have already been issued their Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) and those who have not applied for it yet may download the same from the voter services portal.