Telangana civic polls: Facial recognition tech helps cast vote within minutes, a hit among voters

KOMPALLY: It took just three minutes for D Dharani, a final-year BCom student, to cast her vote and leave the polling booth. What helped her finish the process of exercising her franchise within minutes was the facial recognition technology.
“I came to the polling booth for the first time. I wondered what were the polling staff doing using a smartphone,” said Dharani, who voted at the Zilla Parishad High School, Kompally.
The State Election Commission (SEC) launched the facial recognition technology for voters of select 10 polling stations in Kompally Municipality of Medchal Malkajgiri district. A total of 7,700 voters cast their vote at these 10 polling stations.
The use of the new technology entails a polling official verifying a voter’s ID proof using a smartphone, and then taking his/her photo. The voter’s photo is then upload on the server using ‘face recognition app’.
This image is tallied with the photo on the voters’ list. If, the image is tallied, a green mark appears on the smartphone, stating he/she is a genuine voter.
“It is highly appreciable that the State Election Commission (SEC) has used such a technology to ease the voting process. They should continue this for assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” Dharani told TOI.
MNR Jyoti, Kompally municipal commissioner and assistant district election authority, said: “A voter who enters with a polling slip and voter ID card comes out after exercising his/her vote within two minutes, thanks to the facial recognition app. We cannot download this app from Play Store. The Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS), which developed this technology, trained 10 polling personnel. We have purchased 10 smartphones exclusively for this purpose.”
A couple, N Ratna Kumari, a homemaker, and N Suresh, a techie, were also excited about the use of technology in the electoral process. “It is a good initiative launched by the SEC, that too in Kompally municipality,” Suresh told TOI. “Bogus voters can be filtered out through this newly launched facial recognition technology,” said M Arjun Reddy, a resident of NCL Colony, Kompally.