Electoral Rolls in India: How Are Voters Verified and Updated?

The legitimacy of Indian elections, the largest democracy in the world, depends in essence on clean, verifiable, and current electoral rolls. These define who is entitled to vote in municipal, state, and national elections and thus the preparation of these and their ongoing updation a matter of greatest concern for the public at large.

How Are Electoral Rolls Created and Updated?

Electoral rolls contain all voters eligible to vote according to their residence, age (above 18), and citizenship. The Election Commission of India (ECI) maintains and updates these rolls in a formal manner:

1. Annual/Special Revision

Update is done through Special Summary Revision (SSR) or Special Intensive Revision (SIR), particularly prior to large-scale elections or with administrative changes (such as new constituency boundaries).

The newest model is the SIR, employed in Bihar and now being implemented across the country.

2. Booth Level Officers (BLO) Verification

Trained BLOs go door-to-door to verify and count voters. They visit every eligible person and pick up forms for new enrollments or changes, going back to areas to cover migratory, ill, disabled, and vulnerable groups.

BLOs are actively engaged in schemes to facilitate the elderly, disabled, and others who might find it cumbersome to enroll.

3. Draft Roll Publication and Claims/Objections

Once enumeration is over, a Draft Electoral Roll is published for each constituency. Citizens and political parties can verify whether their names have been listed accurately and make claims and objections about inclusions, exclusions, or mistakes.

Special camps and online portals are open to allow objections or applications for correction.

4. Verification and Hearings

Each claim or objection is checked by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), occasionally with proof: Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card, or citizenship evidence, as recommended by the Supreme Court.

Hearings are conducted for disputed entries; appeals can be lodged up to the District Magistrate or Chief Electoral Officer.

5. Final Roll Publication

Following claims and amendments, the Final Electoral Roll is brought out. Voting is only for those on this roll.

Salient Features in the 2025 Update:

In Bihar, for instance, over 90,000 BLOs carried out door-to-door verification. Over 165,000 correction applications were received once the draft roll was released. The process is to identify duplicate, deceased, and migrated voters, and the final roll is due September 30, 2025.

Roll of each constituency is put online for transparency.

Voter Registration and Correction: Citizen's Role

• First-time voters (those who are 18 years of age) submit Form 6 (online, at BLOs, or camps).

• Correction/Deletion for change of address, death, or mistake necessitate forms and affidavits.

• Citizens are allowed to check their registration status on ECI portals.

Transparency and Political Participation

• The ECI urges political parties to send Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to observe and report anomalies during revision, allowing multi-party oversight of the updation process.

• All decisions, deletions, additions, and corrections are noted, and documents supporting the same are uploaded to ECINET (in-house ECI portal).

The Vote Theft Debate

Roll revision process comes under intense scrutiny in 2025 on charges of "vote theft."

Opposition parties allege certain bulk deletions and claimed errors target specific communities disproportionately, especially minorities, using recent Bihar and Karnataka exercises as examples.

Rahul Gandhi and other politicians claim duplicate or false entries, incorrect addresses, and bulk deletions to favor the ruling BJP, citing examples such as Mahadevapura (Karnataka), where over 100,000 purportedly invalid votes were tallied.

Election Commission Response: The ECI strongly refutes these allegations, seeking evidence or complaints. It claims all removals are done in accordance with law and has appeal mechanisms. The Commission emphasizes that the process is subject to multi-level checks, right of appeal, and active opposition participation (through BLAs and public objections).

What's Being Done?

Comprehensive audits, public hearings, and transparency steps — all designed to get each and every qualifying citizen on the rolls, with strong rights of appeal against deletions.

Political demonstrations and calls for extra time and openness, with opposition party leaders conducting demonstrations and seeking early review at the Supreme Court.

Media and independent inquiries have discovered both actual errors (e.g., deceased voters or incorrect photographs included) and no apparent religiously motivated deletions beyond a few districts.

Integration of Technology: Roll maintenance now includes online submissions, upload of digital documents, and cross-validation through Aadhaar and other official records where allowed.

Protection of Vulnerable Voters: Special precautions are required for elderly, disabled, and poor citizens to avoid involuntary erasures.