SHIMLA: As high as 80.5 per cent voting was recorded among the first time voters enrolled since 2017 that has signaled that new voters are taking the candidates to task, sounding a heathy trend for democracy in the state.
The number general electors has increased to 55.25 lakh in 2022 assembly elections as compared to 49.88 lakh in vidhan sabha elections 2017. It has logged an increase of 10.7 percent, said Chief Electoral Officer, Maneesh Garg here today.
This includes 1.93 lakh first time voters between 18-19 years of age, he added.
As against the above, the number of electors who voted in vidhan sabha elections 2017 (excluding postal ballots of service and election duty voters) were 37.27 lakh which increased to 41.60 lakh in 2022 (excluding Postal ballot voters as above) thereby registering an increase of 11.6 percent, he added.
As such number of electors increased by 5.37 lakh while the number of votes polled increased by 4.33 lakh in assembly elections 2022, said CEO.
He said that from this data analysis, it can be inferred that the voting percentage of the electors newly enrolled since 2017, was nearly 80.5 percent in 2022 assembly elections.
This was due to the efforts of the Election Commission of India that the enrollment of new voters has increased in the State, said Sh. Garg. 
State wide awareness campaigns under Universal Transparent Elections through Systematic Awareness of Voters (UTSAV) were launched aggressively which also attributed to such an increase. Besides, 2524 Election Literacy Clubs and 7881 Chunav Pathshalas were constituted and activated to make the voters aware that 'Every Vote counts and no voter to be left behind". said Sh. Garg.
