Election Commission and Facebook Launch Voter Registration Campaign for First Time Voters

As part of the campaign, all users who turn 18, between 28 November and 31 December will receive a News Feed reminder with birthday wishes and also encouraging them to register with the Election Commission and on 30 November a reminder would be sent to all those who have already turned 18 this year.

These voter registration reminders will be sent to newly eligible first time voters on Facebook in India. The reminder will be in 13 Indian languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi and Oriya. By clicking on the “Register Now" button, people will be directed to the National Voters’ Services Portal which will guide them through the registration process.

This is the first time Facebook's voter registration reminder has been rolled out across India keeping the first time voters in mind. This partnership is designed to support the ECI's ongoing campaign to register first time voters announced on November 15 by Election Commission of India.

Achal Kumar Jyoti, chief election commissioner, Election Commission of India said, "I am happy to announce that the Election Commission of India has launched a Special Drive to enroll all prospective and eligible young citizens of India as voters who are turning 18 years or more than 18 years on 1st January, 2018. This partnership of Election Commission with Facebook for the dissemination of Information will help us reach out the young digital Community of India in fulfilling our mission “No Voter to be Left Behind’’ and “Every Vote Counts”"

Nitin Saluja, politics and government outreach manager for India, South and Central Asia said, “People use Facebook to learn about, talk about, and get involved with the issues that matter to them. We want to build products that support this type of civic engagement - on Election Day and every day. Since the beginning of this year, millions of people in India have used Facebook to engage on elections, whether it's asking the candidates questions, sharing the latest news, or having a conversation about the issues with their friends and followers. Though our partnership with the Election Commission of India we hope to connect more people with the issues that matter to them, and build a more civically-engaged community.”