Want to Vote in the 2019 Elections? Here’s How to Register Yourself

General elections are just around the corner. And as parties prepare to woo voters, it’s important that we’re ready to actually play our part in our democracy – and deciding who gets to run our country. For that, we need to register ourselves to vote.

Going by 2011 census data, there could be as many as 10 crore first-time voters this year.

You can register yourself as a voter online or offline.

Which type of voter are you?

There are three electoral categories in India:

  1. NRI/overseas voters – Indian citizens who live abroad
  2. service voters – people in the Indian armed forces, police or employed by the government abroad
  3. general voters – anyone 18 or above is a general voter

Don’t know if you’re registered to vote? Here’s how to check 

Go to this site here to see if your name’s on the voters list.

If you can’t find your name on this list, here’s how to get on it.

Are you eligible to vote?

Here’s a checklist:

  1. You should be an Indian citizen
  2. You should be 18 years or older on January 1, 2019
  3. You must be a resident of the polling area of the constituency where you want to be enrolled
  4. The Election Commission shouldn’t have disqualified you from voting for any reason

Here’s how to register yourself online 

  1. Visit the National Voters Service Portal
  2. Click on the option that says ‘Apply online for registration of new voter/due to shifting from AC’
  3. Next, you’ll be asked to fill in Form 6
    It’s going to ask for your full name, current address, permanent address
    It will also ask you to upload copies of a recent passport sized photo, address proof and age proof – your birth certificate, 10th Boards’ marksheet, passport, Aadhar, PAN card and driving licence all work
  4. Once you hit submit, you can track your status.

If you’re confused about something, you can call the Election Commission’s helpline number at 1950.

Once you receive confirmation of your registration – either by post or online – you can go back to see if your name is on the voters list.

Democracy only works if we participate in it. So let’s do our bit.

Featured image credit: PTI