Each topic below explains the evidence, the business problem it creates, how GLOBEIR solves it, the benefits to your organisation, and how your data stays private and secure.
1. Polling Station Mapping and Distance Norms
A polling station is the basic unit of the electoral system. ECI's Manual on Polling Stations says that, ordinarily, no voter should have to travel more than 2 kilometres to vote. In sparsely populated hilly or forest areas the rule may be relaxed and smaller stations set up, with due consideration given to topography and ease of travel [1]. The same manual says a polling station should be provided for every village with more than 300 voters where a suitable building exists. Not more than two stations should share a building in rural areas, or four in urban areas, and no political party office should be within 200 metres [1].
Elector numbers per station are tightening. The 2024 general election allowed up to 1,500 electors per station across 10,48,202 polling stations [2]. In March 2025 ECI said no polling station would have more than 1,200 electors, all would be within 2 km of their electors, and clusters of high-rise buildings and colonies would get polling stations inside their premises [3]. The Bihar Assembly election in November 2025 applied the 1,200-voter limit and added booths in high-rise residential complexes [6]. ECI's BLO App already captures GIS coordinates and photographs of polling stations [2], and state bodies publish polling location maps. Examples include the Delhi GIS map with polling locations from the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi [11], Karnataka's election information system from the state remote sensing centre [10], and an Election GIS application on ISRO's Bhuvan [12].
Research shows why location matters. In a peer-reviewed study of Los Angeles County, merging polling places in 2003 cut overall turnout by 1.85 percentage points, and the authors traced the change to the costs of travelling to and finding the new polling place [13].
Business problem
Rationalising polling stations before each election means checking thousands of stations against the 2 km norm, the elector limit and the building rules. It also means deciding where to split or add stations as new colonies and high-rise clusters appear [3]. Straight-line distance on a paper part map hides rivers, railway lines and hill paths that make the real trip much longer. Errors often come to light only when objections arrive or on polling day, when it is too late to move a station.
Our solution
- A polling station GIS that holds every station and polling location as a verified point, linked to part number, building, floor and facilities, with polling area outlines digitised from the published part descriptions.
- Network distance analysis along roads, footpaths and river crossings that flags areas where electors would travel more than 2 km [1].
- Elector-count checks against the limit ECI sets [3], with options to split, add or move stations shown on the map for the electoral registration officer.
- Building checks for the manual's rules on shared buildings and the 200 m limit for party offices [1].
- Delivery on a WebGIS map and as printable part maps, built with GLOBEIR's GIS mapping and cartography team.
Benefits
- Breaches of the 2 km and elector norms are found during rationalisation, not on polling day.
- Proposals for new or shifted stations come with a clear map of their effect on travel distance.
- Industry example: the Los Angeles study found that moving and merging polling places measurably reduced turnout [13], which is why careful location planning matters.
- One shared station layer serves rationalisation, logistics and voter facilitation.
Privacy & data security
- Analysis runs on station locations, buildings, roads and elector counts per polling area. It needs no names or details of individual electors.
- Where elector counts come from the election office, only the totals for each part are used, and they stay in the client's chosen deployment.
- Access is limited by role, such as ERO, DEO and CEO office, and every change to station data is logged.
2. Accessibility and Assured Minimum Facilities Audits
ECI requires every polling station to be on the ground floor, with an accessible road in good condition. Each must have Assured Minimum Facilities: drinking water, a waiting shed, a toilet with water, adequate lighting, a ramp of proper gradient for electors with disabilities and a standard voting compartment. CEOs and DEOs have been directed to build permanent ramps and infrastructure [2]. The manual adds a minimum room area of about 20 square metres where practicable, two doors for separate entry and exit, and shade from sun and rain [1]. ECI's 2023 instructions also ask for at least one polling station run entirely by women officials and one by officials with disabilities in each assembly constituency, where possible [7].
The scale of need is large. Rolls for 2024 listed 88.35 lakh electors with disabilities and 81.88 lakh electors aged over 85 [2]. ECI's BLO App already includes a module for collecting facility details at polling stations [2].
Business problem
District offices must certify facilities at thousands of stations, often through returns compiled by many field officials. Without dated, located evidence it is hard to know whether a ramp was built to the right gradient or a toilet is usable. Gaps are often found only during inspections close to the poll.
Our solution
- A structured AMF and accessibility checklist in the My GLOBEIR app, with GPS location, time stamp and photographs for each item, and offline capture for areas with weak networks.
- Assignment of stations to field teams and sector officers on a map, with progress tracked live.
- A gap register on a monitoring dashboard that follows each missing facility to its fix, with before-and-after photographs.
- Export of station-wise facility status for reports to the CEO and ECI.
Benefits
- Facility status for every station is visible on one map, backed by photographic evidence.
- Repairs are prioritised and checked before polling day.
- Accessible stations are easier to confirm for elderly electors and electors with disabilities, who number in the tens of lakhs [2].
- The same records support facilitation maps and later elections.
Privacy & data security
- Audit forms are designed to capture buildings and facilities, not people; no elector data is collected during an audit.
- Field staff location in the app is used only for audit work, and background tracking is optional and opt-in with a persistent notification.
- Audit data stays in the election office's chosen deployment and is not shared outside the agreed purpose.
3. EVM and Election Material Logistics
ECI has instructed all Chief Electoral Officers that the end-to-end movement of all EVMs and VVPATs, including reserve machines, be monitored at all times. Every vehicle carrying them must be fitted with a GPS tracking system [2]. Machines are randomised twice through the EVM Management System, first to assembly segments and then to polling stations, and central and state forces guard the strong rooms where they are stored [2]. During the 2025 Bihar election, ECI used ECINET for data collection, monitoring and supervision, with webcasting at each of the 90,740 polling stations [6].
Business problem
Machines and material travel long distances, over several days, through dispersal centres, polling stations and collection centres. A GPS device on each vehicle is only useful if the control room can see planned routes, expected arrival times and every halt on one screen. When vehicle positions sit in separate vendor portals, delays and deviations are hard to spot, and the record needed after the poll is hard to assemble.
Our solution
- Strong rooms, dispersal centres, polling stations and collection centres loaded as geofenced sites, with planned routes for each machine-carrying vehicle.
- Live vehicle positions on a live tracking map, with alerts for unplanned halts, route deviations, late departures and late arrivals.
- A trip history for each vehicle, kept for review after the poll.
- Integration with existing GPS devices where the election office already has them, so tracking feeds one view.
Benefits
- Control rooms can act on a halt or deviation as it happens.
- A clear, time-stamped movement record supports ECI's instruction on end-to-end monitoring [2].
- Route planning reduces late arrivals at dispersal and collection centres.
- Industry example: ECI used one platform, ECINET, for monitoring and supervision data during the 2025 Bihar election [6], showing the value of a single operational view.
Privacy & data security
- Vehicle and route data for machine movement is security-sensitive. It is held in the client's chosen deployment, including on-premise or MeitY-empanelled government cloud, and is never shared.
- Access to live tracking is restricted to named control-room roles, and every view and export is logged.
- Driver and staff location is used only for the duty period and the agreed purpose.
4. Polling Party, Sector and Security Deployment Planning
ECI notes that mobilising, deploying and disengaging central and state police forces, with minimum criss-cross movement and best use of each unit, needs complex planning and several rounds of consultation. A committee of the CEO, the State Police Nodal Officer and the state CAPF coordinator decides the state deployment plan [2]. ECI's election workforce includes over 10.5 lakh Booth Level Officers, nearly 45 lakh polling officials, 4,123 EROs and 767 DEOs [4]. The manual says polling stations in difficult areas should have easy and safe access, and may be placed in clusters so that available forces can be used well [1].
Business problem
Deployment plans for polling parties, sector officers, reserve teams and force units are often built in spreadsheets with little view of the road network. Travel times are guessed, sectors are unbalanced and last-minute changes are hard to make. On polling day, officers need to know which parties have reached their stations and where help is needed, but updates arrive by phone.
Our solution
- A map of polling stations, sector and zonal routes, dispersal centres, reserve team bases and force locations.
- Sector design by travel time, so each sector officer has a fair, reachable set of stations.
- Departure times and routes for polling parties worked out from network travel times.
- A polling-day monitoring dashboard fed by sector officers' updates from the My GLOBEIR app: party arrived, poll started, issue reported.
Benefits
- Deployment plans are built and changed on one shared map instead of separate spreadsheets.
- Balanced sectors and planned routes cut back-and-forth travel, in line with ECI's aim of minimum criss-cross movement [2].
- Field status is visible in near real time, so reserve teams can be sent where they are needed.
- After the poll, plans and timings feed the next election's planning.
Privacy & data security
- Force deployment plans are restricted information. They can be hosted on-premise or air-gapped, with access only for named officers.
- Polling staff details are limited to what deployment needs, such as name, role and assigned station, and are deleted when the agreed retention period ends.
- Staff location tracking is work-only, opt-in, and limited to the duty period.
5. Voter Facilitation: Route-to-Booth and Accessible Voting
ECI's Voter Helpline app and portal let citizens view their polling booth and constituency details and contact their Booth Level Officer. The Saksham app lets electors with disabilities ask for a wheelchair, and ECI has directed that transport be arranged for electors with disabilities and senior citizens at every polling station [2]. ECINET now brings more than 40 apps and portals onto one platform, in 22 scheduled languages and English [5]. Karnataka's election information system offers "Know your Polling Booth", wheelchair booking and a pickup and drop facility for specially abled and senior citizen voters [10].
Internationally, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission recommends GIS lookup tools that show how far the polling place is and how to reach it on foot, by vehicle or by public transport. It notes that such tools need only the residential address and location information, which keeps personal data to a minimum [14].
Business problem
Electors, especially first-time voters, people who have moved, elderly electors and electors with disabilities, often know their part number but not the exact building, entrance or route. Districts that arrange pickup points or accessible transport struggle to tell the people who need them. Confusion at the gate leads to crowding and wasted trips.
Our solution
- A public WebGIS or WebMap of polling locations with building photographs, landmarks, accessible entrances, parking and facility details from the AMF audit.
- Walking and road routes to each polling location, designed to complement ECI's official apps rather than replace them.
- Layers for district pickup points, help desks and accessible transport arrangements.
- Mobile-friendly, multilingual pages that can be linked from the CEO or district website.
Benefits
- Electors can find the right building and entrance before polling day.
- Elderly electors and electors with disabilities can see accessible entrances and assistance in advance [2].
- Industry example: Karnataka's election portal combines booth lookup with wheelchair booking and pickup and drop services [10].
- Fewer enquiries and less crowding at polling locations.
Privacy & data security
- Public maps show only polling locations, routes and facilities. They do not show or store any elector's name, address or roll details.
- Any address lookup is designed for data minimisation: the address is used only to find the polling location, in line with the approach the EAC recommends [14].
- Usage analytics, if enabled, are aggregated and contain no personal identifiers.
6. Constituency Boundary Maps
Constituency boundaries are set by law. The Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008 lists the extent of each constituency by naming districts, sub-divisions, community development blocks, gram panchayats, municipalities and wards, read as they stood on 15 February 2004 [9]. For Assam, ECI published a final delimitation order in August 2023 under Section 8-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. It was based on the 2001 Census, kept 126 assembly and 14 parliamentary seats, and was released with maps of parliamentary constituencies and district-wise maps of assembly constituencies [8]. For that exercise, the CEO gathered data and maps with administrative units from all districts [8].
Business problem
Because the orders describe constituencies through administrative units frozen at a past date, while ward and village boundaries have changed since, building an accurate digital boundary is not simple. Offices often work from scanned or hand-drawn maps that do not line up with road, polling or settlement layers. Small mismatches cause confusion over which polling area falls in which constituency.
Our solution
- Digital constituency outlines assembled from the administrative units named in the published order [9], checked against official maps where available [8].
- Polling areas and stations nested within constituencies, with checks that no polling area crosses a boundary.
- Cartographic outputs to a consistent standard: wall maps for returning officers, sector maps for field teams and web layers for public display, prepared by GLOBEIR's cartography team.
- Maps shown only as published. GLOBEIR does not propose or model alternative boundaries.
Benefits
- Every office works from the same boundary layer, matched to the notified order.
- Polling areas and stations are checked against the correct constituency.
- Maps can be reused for rationalisation, logistics and voter facilitation.
- Boundary layers are ready to update when a new order is notified.
Privacy & data security
- Boundary and administrative data is public, but working files are kept in the client's chosen deployment until the client approves publication.
- High-accuracy base data is handled under the DST geospatial guidelines, which require data finer than the threshold to be stored and processed in India [18].
- Only the client decides which maps are published and when.
7. Campaign Event and Route Logistics for Political Organisations
During elections, candidates and parties apply online through ECI's Suvidha portal for permission for meetings, rallies, loudspeakers and temporary offices, and track each application there. ECI has also directed that public spaces for meetings and rallies be allocated through the Suvidha app as far as practicable [2]. Once permissions are granted, the work is logistics: moving people, stages, sound equipment and vehicles between venues on time.
Business problem
Campaign schedules are often drawn up without realistic travel times, so events start late, vehicles bunch up near venues and teams backtrack across the constituency. Organisers juggle permission status, venue details and vehicle positions across phone calls and spreadsheets.
Our solution
- A venue map with capacity, access roads, parking and assembly areas, alongside permission status recorded by the organisation.
- Daily route plans and travel times between approved events.
- Live tracking of campaign vehicles through the My GLOBEIR app or vehicle devices, so the schedule can be adjusted during the day.
- This service covers logistics only. GLOBEIR does not use electoral rolls, does not profile voters and does not analyse or target any group of voters.
Benefits
- Realistic schedules that keep events on time.
- Less congestion around venues through planned parking and arrival routes.
- A single view of permissions, venues and vehicles for the logistics team.
- Records of routes and timings that help planning for later events.
Privacy & data security
- Only venue, route, schedule and vehicle data is processed. No voter data is collected, received or used.
- Each organisation's data is kept separate, never shared with any other client and not used to train models for other clients.
- Staff and volunteer tracking is opt-in, work-only and limited to campaign duty hours.