Election Observations

On voting day in Bangalore, my maid, driver and cook all voted. On the other hand, one of my cousins voted but the other two didn't know where they were registered, they couldn't find their names at the polling booths. It seems when you go out of state, the registration process gets complicated however this didn't seem to deter my cook from Orissa. Prior to voting day, we saw trucks with large microphones passing through the small villages and people crowding around the campaigners. As you all probably know, it seems like a large part of the campaign is centered around small villages. My friend mentionned that the voter registration ID card is one of the few photo ID cards that the lower income families hold and therefore voting is simple for them. Many of them use the voter IDs as their ration cards and for other government transaction unlike the middle class families who have PAN cards and other forms of ID. Seems this is why the lower income population is more likely to vote than the middle or higher income population. Each voter gets this black uneraseable mark on their forefinger so it's easy to pick out who voted and who didn't. I understand this is to ensure that the same person doesn't vote repeatedly :-) We ran some errands on voting day and the streets were quiet, it was as if we were out at 1AM in the morning and many of the restaurants and stores were closed. It was a creepy to be out that day and I was a bit worried about how safe it was but I would say things went fairly smoothly in Bangalore.