Postal ballot and home voting: who can vote by post and how it is counted

Section 59 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 says that votes are given by ballot as prescribed, and that, save as the Act expressly provides, no votes are received by proxy. Voting at the polling station is therefore the norm.

Section 60 lets the rules provide for exceptions. Certain service voters may vote in person, by post or by proxy. Other service voters and their spouses may vote in person or by post. Any class of persons notified by the Election Commission may vote by post only, and so may a person held under preventive detention. The detailed procedure sits in Rules 17 to 27L of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961.

A postal ballot does not give anyone a right to vote that they would not otherwise have. The Commission tells Returning Officers that this method cannot empower a person who has no right to vote under section 62 of the Act. The voter must already be on the electoral roll.

The category of "absentee voter" was introduced in 2019 by changing Rule 18. The Commission has since changed who falls in it. According to its own training material, the category was modified in June 2020 and again in March 2024.

The classes under section 60(c) are notified by the Commission. As of 2026-09-25, its most recent notice we could read is that of 19 March 2026, for the assembly elections then under way. It notified electors above 85 years and PwDs flagged in the rolls, and said essential services such as fire, health, electricity, traffic, ambulance, aviation and long-distance state road transport are covered. It also included media persons authorised by the Commission for poll-day coverage. Check the notification for the election in question, as the list can change.

The Commission offered home voting for elderly and disabled voters for the first time at a Lok Sabha election in 2024. It is optional. The Press Information Bureau reported that over 1.7 crore voters above 85 years and PwDs with 40% benchmark disability were eligible.

The choice is final. The Commission tells Returning Officers that a choice once exercised cannot be reversed, so an elector who opts for a postal ballot cannot then vote at the polling station.

Since a 2016 change to Rule 23, a postal ballot for a service voter can be sent electronically. This is the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS). The Returning Officer sends the ballot as soon as the list of contesting candidates is final. The voter prints it, marks it, and returns it by post. The voter pays nothing for the return post.

Before an inner cover is opened, the Returning Officer checks the declaration in Form 13A. The ballot is rejected, unopened, if the declaration is missing, is not signed or attested by a competent officer, or its serial number does not match the inner cover. A ballot is not rejected only because an attesting officer did not put a seal, if the name and designation are given. All rejections for defects in the declaration are re-verified by the Returning Officer.

Where the winning margin is smaller than the number of postal ballots rejected as invalid, the Returning Officer must personally re-examine every rejected postal ballot, and the Observer and the officer record the findings before the result is finalised.

The counting handbook cited here dates from 2023, and its figure for the elderly age limit (80) has since been replaced. This guide uses the current figure, above 85 years, from the Commission's 2024 and 2026 notices.