The correct answer is Both 1 and 2.

• The Election Commission of India is mulling over to push for absentee votes to increase the voter base and facilitate higher turnout during polls.

• The proposed reforms of the Election Commission-
  • Linkage of the Aadhar number with voter ID.
  • Allowing voter registration as soon as a person turns 18 years.
  • Ensuring gender-neutral voting rights to service voters.
  • Launching of the digital voter ID for new voters.
• Hence, both statements are correct.
• While the first three require amendments to the Representation to People’s Act, 1951, the fourth one- a Digi locker enabled version of the voter ID is set to be launched on January 25 at a National Voter’s Day event.
• Aadhaar linkage and voter authentication are also considered critical to the commission’s plans to work towards electronic/Internet-based voting and forgiving ‘remote’ voting rights to domestic migrants.
• The Aadhar linkage is pending an amendment to the Representation of People’s Act.
• The EC had assured that privacy and data safety-related concerns would be protected in discussions held until December 2019.
• The EC is now waiting for the government to move the amendment to the Cabinet for approval.
• One of these is a proposed amendment to Section 14(b) of the RP Act, which looks at registration for first-time voters as they turn 18 years of age. Presently, only those who turn 18 on January 1 can apply to register as a voter that year.
• The third recommendation pertaining to voting rights involves amendments to Section 20(6) of the Act — to allow the husband of female service personnel to be registered as a service voter where she holds office.
• As of now, subsection (8) of Section 20 of the Representation of People Act only allows the wife of a male ‘service’ voter to cast her vote as a service voter. This facility is not available to the husband of a female service voter. The current rules also do not permit children of a service voter residing with him to be enrolled as service voters.