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Elections during a Pandemic Chapter 7

Further enrollment of electors through filing of Form-6
was permi ed. This number actually increased due to
proac ve enrollment measures by elec on officials. As
per available sta s cs (based on index card data
submi ed by Returning Officers), the final number of
enrolled voters (including service voters) in the state was
7,36,47,660 out which 3,87,89,388 were male;
3,48,55,815 were female and 2457 were of third gender.
The number of voters who voted (excluding Postal Votes)
were 4,19,26,443 out of which 2,11,21,394 were males,
2,08,04,957 females and 92 of third gender. The polling
percentage excluding the postal ballots was 56.93
percent, which was the best in a last few legisla ve
assembly elec ons in Bihar. One must also consider that
this figure was reached despite COVID and flood situa on
in the State.

Of enrolled female voters, 59.69 percent actually voted.
This put the women's turnout percentage higher than
that of men's turnout at 54.45 percent.

The total number of postal votes across all cons tuencies
inclusive of both Service Voters; and Government
Thermal scanning was an important part of the COVID-safety precautions Servants and Absentee voters was 2,67,607.

more than 2.3 lakh such eligible ci zens in the category On September 29, 2020 Elec on Commission of India
got enrolled. It was found that approximately, 14 lakh announced bye-elec ons to one Parliament Cons tuency
such ci zens were already enrolled. Thus on the eve of in Bihar (1-Valmiki Nagar) and 56 Assembly Cons tuencies
announcement of the elec ons to Bihar Legisla ve across 11 states viz. Chha sgarh, Gujarat, Haryana,
Assembly the number of electors were as below. Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur,
Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana and U ar Pradesh. The
State No. of No. of Total number broad guidelines for conduct of elec ons during COVID-
General Service of electors on 19 were applicable equally to all these elec ons.
Electors Voters electoral roll
as on The coverage of EPIC (Electors Photo Iden ty Card) was 100
23.09. 2020 percent in case of Bihar. The same was true of Photo Electoral
Rolls. However, as per standard prac ce, voters were also
Bihar 7,27,66,986 1,60,410 7,29,27,396 permi ed to show any of the 11 Commission approved
iden ty documents (if not carrying an EPIC) as ID proof.

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