The state government has initiated a process whereby undertrials and convicts can cast their votes. India is one of the very few countries that does not allow prisoners to vote. Despite the state's best efforts, legislations could not be amended on time to allow prisoners to cast their votes this time.

However, the matter will now be consistently pursued jointly by the state election commission and the state home department, it has been decided.

The government faces being hauled before the European court of human rights http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/european-court-of-human-rights it gives prisoners the right to vote as a matter of urgency.

Voting rights have been restored for two American Indians in South Dakota who sued after being wrongly turned away at their polling places in the 2008 general elections because they were convicted felons, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.

The agreement on behalf of Pine Ridge Reservation residents Kim Colhoff and Eileen Janis was reached Monday with the state and Shannon County.

While state law bans voting by anyone sentenced to prison, the disenfranchisement was improperly applied to Colhoff and Janis, who were only sentenced to probation.