How casting a vote in Thane became needlessly difficult

Soon, a local leader’s aides arrived. I explained the situation. They downloaded the slip themselves. It matched mine. Since I wasn’t leaving, one staff member made a few calls. Five minutes later, the mystery was solved: my actual polling booth was in Patlipada, four kilometres away. A screenshot arrived on WhatsApp. The name on the slip read ‘Hina Khandelaval’. The spelling was off, but my EPIC number matched. I took a rickshaw and went.

At the booth, I was told my photo was not available in their records. A woman on duty asked two young men sitting nearby if they knew me. They obviously didn’t. After showing my voter ID and another government ID, a marker pen was used to ink my finger and I was finally allowed to vote.

But the confusion didn’t end there.

Voters in Thane have to cast four votes. Yet there were only three machines. One machine required two votes, divided by pink and white sections. Most people were unsure. No one had done this before. Senior citizens struggled. One elderly man took ten minutes to finish voting. When he finally did, the room burst into applause.

My husband faced a similar ordeal. His slip showed Neelkanth Palms, but his booth was actually at DAV School, thankfully it was only a few minutes walk. A staff member outside Neelkanth Palms explained that many residents were affected.

After finally casting my vote, I called my mother-in-law to recount my ordeal and urged her to stay back and ask officials to locate her ward. She had just reached home after spending 30 unproductive minutes at the polling station.

Yes, casting a vote is our duty, but it shouldn’t be this confusing or hard.