Who gets to vote? Why Bihar's poll roll revision is under fire
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
What are ‘machine readable' electoral rolls?
The story so far: Along with the allegations of 'vote theft' by the Congress, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has demanded that 'machine readable' voter rolls be made available to all political parties by the Election Commission (EC). How are voter rolls shared? Electoral rolls are the authoritative list of who is and isn't allowed to vote in India, and they are continuously updated when newly eligible voters register to vote, change addresses, or become ineligible. Voter rolls are prepared under the EC's authority by district level officials, who have access to ERONET, a digital application used by the EC to process applications for new additions to the voter list, or deletions. The EC has access to the full repository of data on every voter in India. They make this data accessible by making 'image PDF' files available, or by handing out printouts to political parties and the general public. Voter rolls include a photo of all voters, but this photo is not included in the image PDF files that the EC has on its website. While these image PDF rolls can be scrutinised in theory, this can turn out to be a resource-intensive exercise in practice. India has over 99 crore voter roll entries as of this January, and spotting duplicates can be challenging unless a team of human reviewers has a long period of time, and a limited geographic sample. That was the case in the Mahadevapura constituency of Bengaluru, where the Congress was able to spot 11,965 duplicate entries. However, if 'text PDF' files are made available, the text can be indexed and searched by a computer making information formatting more straightforward. Without such machine-readable rolls, the Opposition argues, malfeasance and duplicate entries will be harder to spot. P.G. Bhat, a Bengaluru activist, has, prior to 2018, analysed machine-readable rolls to highlight irregular additions. Why won't the EC provide the same? One year before the 2019 elections, the EC ordered State-level Chief Electoral Officers to stop uploading machine-readable rolls on their website. O.P. Rawat, the then Chief Election Commissioner, told The Hindu that this was done to prevent foreign countries from accessing voter roll data, which could expose Indians' full names and addresses. In Kamal Nath versus Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court in 2018 refused to compel the EC to provide machine-readable electoral roll data. This was in spite of the EC's own manual, which states that the 'draft roll shall be put on [Chief Electoral Officers'] website in a text mode'. However, the court observed, 'it may be added that if the petitioner so wants, he can always convert [voter lists] into searchable mode which, of course, would require him to put his own efforts.' The main technology to convert scanned or un-searchable PDF documents into an analysable format is Optical Character Recognition (OCR), a decades-old technology. But there are points of friction that make such an analysis challenging: on the EC's website, voter rolls for each assembly constituency are split into hundreds of 'parts,' each a separate PDF document. Beyond the resource-intensiveness of obtaining the files, performing OCR on such a massive number of pages — over six crore for all the voter rolls in the country, based on a rough estimate — would cost around $40,000 per summary revision list (as per Google's indicative AI Document pricing). Can digital voter rolls spot fraud? Mr. Gandhi has argued that having searchable copies would make spotting duplicate entries easier. Srinivas Kodali, an advocate and transparency activist, said that 'there is a risk' in making rolls public, but that the EC's conduct necessitated further transparency. 'If the capability to OCR anyway exists with political parties, the question is whether we might as well make it public,' Mr. Kodali said.
India Today
7 hours ago
- India Today
Rahul Gandhi approaches top court over 'vote chori' in Bengaluru Lok Sabha seat
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has approached the Supreme Court, seeking an enquiry into alleged irregularities and manipulation in the voter list of the Bengaluru Central constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Congress legal representative advocate Rohit Pandey, urges the Court to order an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired judge. It also requests that the Election Commission be restrained from making any further changes to the voter list until the matter is petition highlights serious concerns about discrepancies in the electoral roll, alleging the presence of fake voters and the omission of eligible voters. Pandey argues that the integrity of the voter list is fundamental to the conduct of free and fair elections, and that the current irregularities threaten this principle. The plea also claims that the Election Commission failed to provide a machine-readable version of the voter list, limiting public scrutiny and undermining the key prayers in the petition are: The formation of an SIT under the supervision of the Supreme Court; An immediate halt to any modifications in the voter list pending judicial review; Issuance of clear guidelines to ensure the Election Commission maintains transparency and accountability in the preparation and publication of voter rolls; Access to machine-readable voter lists for public verification.- EndsTune InMust Watch
Economic Times
9 hours ago
- Economic Times
EC's 2024 survey found Bihar rolls almost error-free
Synopsis A 2024 Election Commission survey in Bihar reveals high accuracy in voter rolls but significant gaps in household registration. While most respondents' details are correctly enrolled, many eligible family members remain unenrolled due to lack of awareness and difficulties in obtaining necessary documents. The survey suggests simplifying procedures and improving support for document acquisition to boost voter registration. New Delhi: While the Election Commission has launched a special intensive revision (SIR) to clean up Bihar's electoral rolls, its own 2024 KAP (knowledge, attitude and practices) survey on voter insights noted the perceived "near-perfect accuracy of voter listings" in Bihar reflecting the "robustness of the electoral roll system".Released in January 2025, the survey, in fact, pointed to "significant gaps in household-level voter registration" and advocated "simplifying procedures" for "obtaining documents for voter enrolment, especially in rural or underserved areas".Conducted on the Election Commission's instructions just before (baseline) and after every election (endline), the KAP survey is key to EC's voter outreach strategies and its landmark systematic voters' education and electoral participation (SVEEP) last such KAP survey (endline) was conducted in Bihar just after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and covered all 243 assembly constituencies of the state. It selected four polling stations per AC -- two each from rural and urban areas -- reflecting a higher and lower voter turnout. 60 respondents per polling stations were part of the survey, as per the survey report prefaced by the Bihar Governor, besides the Chief Secretary and CEO of the takes a look at what it revealed:- Roll correctness: Over 98.9% respondents' details were "correctly enrolled in the electoral roll". A very small percentage of 0.3% did not have their names accurately written, while 0.7% were uncertain about this information, as per the enrolled: As many as 31.8% of the respondents said that a few of their family members were "eligible yet not enrolled in the voter list". 85.6% of the respondents mentioned lack of awareness as the main reason for non-enrolment. Additionally, 4% expressed a lack of interest and 6.6% cited a "lack of valid documents". Another 1.9% of the respondents mentioned the lengthy procedure as a deterrent. "An equal percentage of respondents mentioned that not permanently residing in the area discouraged them from enrolling eligible members at their current residence," as per the coverage: Found significantly high at 99.2%. Again, "lack of awareness" was the major reason for respondents not possessing EPIC. Over 88% respondents cited complexities in getting their EPICs including long process (83.8%), uncooperative officials and inaccessibility of the concerned awareness: As many as 86.8% of the respondents admitted to be aware of the fact not having EPIC does not itself confer them the right to vote unless their name(s) were found in the latest electoral roll. Over 89.9% respondents also acknowledged that having EPICs at multiple places was an voting: When EC's survey examined why some people did not go to cast their vote in recent elections, 30.1% cited their "absence in constituency" while 26.15% cited "not having EPIC" as reasons.11.2% respondents cited "absence of name in the electoral roll" for not turning up to cast in migrant households: 33.3% respondents acknowledged higher female electors enrolled than male electors in the household. KAP 2024 SURVEY SUGGESTIONS The survey notes "the near-perfect accuracy of voter listings" reflecting the "robustness of the electoral roll system'" It noted that even small inaccuracies can lead to "disenfranchisement" and recommended introducing self-verification tools and periodic roll updates, possibly through mobile apps or survey notes the "significant gap in household-level voter registration" and the general challenges seen in individual non-enrolment. It has suggested "simplifying procedures and providing better support for obtaining documents could alleviate some barriers".
