NEW DELHI: Last year, before the general elections got under way, The Times of India highlighted the issue of ‘Lost Votes’, or votes that never get cast simply because the voter is not there in his hometown on voting day. For instance, in the 2019 elections, 300 million voters did not exercise their franchise. That’s a third of India’s 900 million voters. Some probably were not engaged enough to vote, but a vast majority possibly couldn’t vote — because they were far from where they were registered as voters.A year later, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora on Wednesday told a packed audience at the Times Now Summit here that the Election Commission was close to solving this problem that has vexed a whole generation of migrants who want to vote, but can’t manage to reach their polling booth on voting day.In a series of articles, TOI had looked at solutions to ‘Lost Votes’ — most experts agreed the answer lay in technology. On Wednesday, Arora said that the EC is working with the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, to develop a blockchain system that will allow voters registered in any part of the country to exercise their franchise even after they move cities.At last count, India had over 450 million migrants — people who had moved from their hometowns in search of jobs, or to study, or because of marriage. Since many move only temporarily, it makes little sense for them to go through the hassle of registering as voters in their new place of residence.Addressing the opening session of the summit, Arora said he was hopeful that the blockchain system would be put in place during his tenure. He also said a proposal to link voter IDs with Aadhaar, pending with the ministry of law, would be on the agenda during the EC’s February 18 deliberations on electoral reforms with the ministry.Fielding posers on the credibility of EVMs, Arora said while the machines can “malfunction” like any other electronic devices, they cannot be “tampered” with. Ruling out the possibility of going back to ballot papers, the CEC also said while EC was open to constructive criticism, people should refrain from criticising for the “sake of it”.The CEC conceded that day-to-day dialogue has become “more coarse” and that it should be “avoided”, but added that while commission had in the past, and would again, confer with political parties on giving “more sinews” to the model code, the decision, ultimately, would have to be voluntary.