Imagine you’re making a list of all your classmates, but some names get deleted by mistake. Now you need to check everyone’s ID cards to make sure the list is right. That’s kind of what’s happening in Bihar before the state elections.
The Supreme Court said people can use Aadhaar (the national ID) to prove they belong on the voter list. The problem? Aadhaar isn’t perfect—sometimes it has mistakes, and the companies that helped build it weren’t properly checked. But because it’s used everywhere—from getting a SIM card to a gas connection—it’s become super important.
On top of that, polling booths (the places where people vote) have been reorganized. Each booth should now have no more than 1,200 voters instead of 1,500. So, the number of booths went up from about 77,000 to almost 1,00,000! That means new numbering, new staff, and lots of confusion. The officers in charge (called BLOs) only have 15 days to sort out documents from the previous officers.
Even though voters’ names are stored digitally, many documents are still in paper form. With all the renumbering and shifting, things are messy. Some people fear Aadhaar might even let in fake voters, while others say without Aadhaar, real voters might get left out.
The big lesson? Technology and quick fixes can’t solve everything. If there isn’t enough time to carefully check the voter list, the whole process can become a giant mess—like losing count in the middle of a math test.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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