Women voters have outnumbered men voters in at least 15 electoral divisions out of the 33 in the State, according to the revised final electoral roll 2022 published on January 13.
There has been a constant improvement in the gender ratio that has gone up from 958 (per 1,000 male) in the 2013 Assembly elections to 984 this year. It was 960 in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, 963 in 2015 final rolls, and 972 in the 2018 Assembly elections, 976 in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 981 in the 2020 summary revision, and 984 in the final electoral roll this year.
5.25 crore voters
As per the revised final electoral rolls, the total number of voters have increased by 3.27 lakh since 2021. Now, Karnataka has 5.25 crore voters, including 2.60 crore women and 4,715 in the others category.
According to information provided by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), female registered voters are remarkably higher than male voters in 15 divisions including Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Udupi, Uttar Kannada, Shivamogga, Mysuru, and Dakshina Kannada.
A senior official in the office of the CEO told The Hindu that the revision of the electoral roll 2022 began in August 2021 and the final roll was published on January 13. This time, the elector-population ratio of the State (as per the final roll 2022) is 70.76, which means for every 100 voters there are 70.76 voters, the official said.
“During this time’s special summary revision, the total number of voters in some districts including Udupi, Davangere, Tumakuru, Hassan, and Mandya has actually reduced. This is because the voters’ list has been aggressively cleaned up and a lot of duplicates (around 40,000) and dead voters’ (around 28,000) names have been removed. Despite COVID and restrictions, house-to-house surveys were conducted to clean up the list,” said the official.
Fighting influences
K.S. Vimala of Janawadi Mahila Sangathane said although the rise in enrolment of women voters is a good sign, the challenge is to ensure that they vote. “Participation of women in the polling exercise and voting responsibly and sensibly without being influenced by family members, employers or political leaders is vital,” she said.
Attributing the higher enrolment of women voters to migration, she said, “Now during the pandemic, the men in the families move out in search of jobs leaving their wives and children behind. Realising that women are a formidable force in the electoral process, political parties go out of the way to enrol women voters.”
Little change among young voters
According to the special summary revision, a total of 4.01 lakh young voters aged below 20 years have enrolled. This includes 1.04 lakh first time voters aged 18.
Sources said there is not much change in the enrolment of young voters and in fact the number of first time voters has come down. “This is due to course correction in the enrolment process. People who turn 18 are now allowed to enrol four times a year as per new rules,” a senior official said.
Asserting that IT had been used extensively in the summary revision, the official said 76% of the total 6,12,403 forms received for enrolment were online. “We have recorded a 34% increase in online forms as compared to 2020-2021,” the official added.
