EC launches drive to verify voters, family members

Ranchi: The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday, August 25, launched a drive to verify voters and their family members as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, an official said.

The objective of the ‘home to roll verification’ campaign, which will continue till September 4, is to ensure that the names of voters belonging to the same family and household are registered in the electoral roll of the same polling station, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar said.

He said booth-level officers will visit door-to-door under the campaign to ensure that no eligible Indian citizen is left out of the electoral rolls.

“Following the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 5 under the SIR, it is now being ensured through house-to-house verification that the name of every eligible citizen is included in the draft electoral roll, or that those whose names are not included have submitted Form-6 and the digitisation has been completed,” Kumar added.

Necessary assistance will also be provided to the voter for filling Form-8 to transfer names to the relevant polling station, if his name is registered at a polling station other than the designated polling station of the polling area corresponding to his residence, Kumar said.

Kumar stated that an initiative to affix a ‘family together sticker’ in all households would be undertaken during the ‘home to roll verification’ process.

“Through this sticker, families will be urged to ensure that the names of all adult and eligible family members are registered in the electoral roll of the same polling station,” Kumar said.

The EC published the draft electoral rolls on August 5 after deleting over 43.61 lakh names.

Jharkhand had 2.64 crore electors before the SIR enumeration exercise began.

Following the enumeration exercise, the draft electoral rolls contain 2.21 crore voters, including 1.12 crore men, 1.08 crore women and 260 third-gender electors, Kumar said.

The enumeration exercise was conducted between June 30 and July 29, during which BLOs made door-to-door visits to distribute, collect and verify enumeration forms.

The EC has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections under the SIR of electoral rolls in the state to September 15, while the final publication of the revised voter list has been deferred to October 19, an official said.

Earlier, the claims and objections period was from August 5 to September 4, and the final electoral rolls were scheduled to be published on October 7.