Nearly 100 crore Indian electors issued special voter ID cards: ECI

Election Commission officials said nearly 100 crore Indian electors have been issued special Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), after US President Donald Trump cited India's voter identification system while advocating mandatory photo IDs and citizenship proof under the proposed SAVE America Act

New Delhi: After US President Donald Trump cited India’s voter cards to make a case for the SAVE America Act, Election Commission officials on Tuesday said that nearly 100 crore electors have been issued ‘special’ Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC).

They underlined that polling in India is held based on a photo identity card. The ECI has issued a special EPIC to “all” electors, which are close to a billion, they said.

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Electors can also download their e-EPIC from a dedicated website. The officials also noted that electoral rolls in India are prepared for each of the 1.2 million polling stations by the booth-level officers (BLOs), who are employees of the state government, and they are concurrently audited by the booth-level agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties.

Polling in booths is also concurrently audited by polling agents appointed by the candidates. Similarly, counting of votes is also concurrently audited by the counting agents appointed by the candidates, the officials said.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar recently asked the US administration how elections in America can be held without a valid photo identification card, President Trump said, making a case for mandatory photo IDs for every US voter to curb “electoral fraud”. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump said less than 1 per cent of voters in India used postal ballots in the recent general elections, and every voter had a valid photo identity document.

The US president made the remarks to drum up support for the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, impose a nationwide voter identification requirement and severely limit voting by mail.

“Earlier this month, India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, asked our Administration How can you have Elections in the US without a valid Photo ID,” Trump wrote. “India’s last Election had 646,000,000 Voters! Less than one per cent voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document,” Trump said.