How One Billion People Vote in India

A few years ago India set a new record: It reached the milestone of one billion eligible voters. That’s about three times the entire population of the United States.

So how does voting work in the world’s largest democracy?

Indian national elections use the “first-past-the-post” system, also called plurality voting or “winner-take-all.” The candidate who earns the highest number of votes wins—even if they don’t get over 50% of the vote. (This differs from ranked-choice voting, where a candidate has to earn 51% or more of the vote to win.)

All these votes are overseen by the Election Commission of India, an autonomous body that administers federal and state elections. The commission deploys around 15 million officials to over one million polling booths each general election cycle. This big of an endeavor can take time: In 2024 the general election cycle lasted 44 days.

Why so many booths? It's the rule: No voter in India should live more than 2 kilometers away from a polling booth.

This means that poll workers have to navigate some of the most difficult terrain in the world, from traversing 15,000-plus feet above sea level in Himachal Pradesh to braving the trek through the Gir forest national park—home to hundreds of Asiatic lions.

These votes lead us to India’s Parliament, which has two houses: the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

In national elections citizens vote for who will represent them in the Lok Sabha. One representative is elected per territorial constituency: a section of a state or territory divided by population.

Lok Sabha elections are held every five years.

The party that wins the majority of seats forms the government, which means its members serve in important roles like prime minister. If no party wins a clear majority, two parties can join forces as a coalition government.

The Rajya Sabha works differently. Its members, who represent each of India’s 28 states and 8 union territories, serve six-year terms with elections held every two years for a third of the seats.

Regular citizens don’t vote directly in these elections, though. Instead, Rajya Sabha members are elected by state and union territory governments.

Each state has a governing body called a Legislative Assembly—and each member of this body represents one assembly constituency (which is a smaller breakdown of a territorial constituency).

Then these members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs, vote for who gets into the Rajya Sabha using the ranked-choice voting method.

That’s not all state governments do, of course. And some state governments—including in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra—are bicameral, meaning they have two houses.

These states add on an “upper house” called a Legislative Council, which includes members elected indirectly by a whole bunch of groups—local bodies in the state, MLAs, graduates, and teachers—as well as members directly appointed by the governor.

There’s one more caveat to all of this. Even after a national election, public servants don’t always get to serve their full terms. The president can dissolve the Lok Sabha early under the advice of the prime minister, something that’s happened more than a few times in India’s history.

In that case new elections are called—and the whole process starts over again. Time to get 15 million poll workers on speed dial.