About the Lost Votes Tech Solutions Challenge

Problem Statement

Many Indians are always on the move. For work or education. Many things like the bank accounts and mobile numbers automatically travel with us. But our right to votes is tied to the place where it’s registered in. An individual must be physically present where they are registered on polling day to be allowed to vote.

It needs to be changed. It should be possible for every Indian to vote irrespective of where he or she may be temporarily located. The objective of this challenge is to design a strong and secure technological solution or prototype that will allow electors to vote without having to go to designated polling station of their respective constituencies.

The proposed solution must address the various facets of the problem like voter identification, authorization, encryption of votes using secure technology and at the same time be feasible to scale and implemented across every part of the country.

How to Participate

Read the above Problem Statement carefully

Form your team: You can either participate individually or as a team of maximum 4 members

Submit your solution before the deadline to be eligible for the shortlist stage. You can view the guidelines and sample solution here

Shortlist and Mentoring Top 10 teams based on the evaluation criteria, will be shortlisted for the next stage, and would be provided mentors to shape their solution

All the 10 teams would present their ideas and prototypes to the jury and 3 winners would be declared

Timeline

Rewards and Recognition

1. Cash prizes:
   1. Winner: INR 2 Lacs
   2. Runner up: INR 1 Lacs
   3. 1^st Runner up: INR 50,000
2. Accolades: Top 10 teams to receive certificates and 2 years access to GitHub Team worth $5000

Evaluation criteria

Submissions will be judged equally across 4 criteria on whether the solution solves the problem and uses technology effectively.

• Completeness – How fully has the idea been implemented? Can it achieve an impact on the field?
• Effectiveness and efficiency – Does the solution address a high priority area? Does it achieve its goal effectively and efficiently?
• Design and usability – How good are the design, user experience, and ease of use of the solution? How quickly can it be put to use?
• Creativity and innovation – How unique was the approach to solve the problem?

About the Lost votes campaign

Lost votes is The Times of India largest-ever collective campaign aimed at getting the right for voting for those who have moved away from the address where their vote is registered.

Drawing nation-wide attention, the publication with each step in the campaign parsed awareness to millions of migrated voters and concerned citizens on the importance of casting their vote and urgency of addressing the gap. As per the insights gained during the campaign roll-out, 290 million eligible voters were unable to exercise their right to vote, due to migration without a permanent local address.

TOI became the voice of the people via their Lost Votes campaign, urging the Election Commission to find an effective, immediate and permanent solution. Following the year-long campaign, the Election Commission recently announced that they are working on a technology-led solution that will address the issue so that there are no more lost votes. See more details at www.lostvotes.in