How To Use Electoral Roll To Get Your Details

India is the largest democracy in the world. With 28 States and 8 Union Territories, India conducts more elections than any other country in the world. In the 2019 Assembly Elections, 911 million people were eligible to vote. All the administration and management of elections in India are carried out smoothly due to the mammoth effort of one statutory body called the Election Commission of India.

Indian Election Commission is a permanent constitutional body. It was established on 25th January, 1950. India 's Election Commission is an independent statutory body in charge of conducting election processes for the Union and the States in India. The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, the Indian State Legislative Assemblies and the country's President and Vice President Offices.

Electoral Roll

An electoral roll is a list of all registered voters who can cast their vote in an election. The electoral rolls are prepared Assembly Constituency wise. An electoral roll for any constituency of the assembly is subdivided into sections which correspond to the polling booths. India's Election Commission has always made sure to keep a maximum of 1200 electors per booth. The polling booths are set in such a way that no voter should normally travel more than 2 km to the polling booth. Each part would normally correspond to one polling booth.

The first and foremost condition for exercising your right to vote is that your name should be in the electoral roll. You will not be permitted to exercise your franchise without your name recorded in the relevant part for the area where you normally live in the Assembly Constituency. It is therefore your responsibility to determine whether or not your name has been registered in the Electoral Roll.

How to check your name in the electoral rolls and to find the polling station where you cast your vote?

As an elector, you can verify immediately whether or not your name has been included in the electoral roll of the constituency in which you live. This details can be found at your area's Electoral Registration Officer. Electoral rolls have now been published on government websites in all major cities too.

Searching for your details on the Electoral Roll using the NVSP Portal

The National Voters Service Portal (NVSP) portal is an interactive portal providing various services for the Indian voters. You can search for your name on the latest Electoral Roll through NVSP. Here are the steps:

1. Go to the National Voter’s Service Portal
2. On the homepage, click on “Search in Electoral Roll”
3. You will be taken to the electoralsearch.in page
4. On this page, you can search for a voter ID by entering the EPIC Number. If you don’t have your EPIC number handy, you can search using Name, Father’s name, Date of Birth & State.
5. If you enter the EPIC Number, it will pull up the specific record. If you are searching by entering the criteria, it may pull up all the records matching the details you input.
6. Look for the correct one and click on ‘View Details’
7. This will pull up your Voter details.
8. This page allows you to take a print out of the voter details which serves as the Voting Slip for you to cast your vote.
9. It will have the following details:
   • Voter’s Name
   • Voter’s Father/Mother/Spouse’s Name
   • Date of Birth and Age
   • Gender
   • Full address
   • EPIC Number (Elector’s Photo Identity Card)
   • Part Number – Which is the Assembly Constituency you belong to
   • Electoral roll number
   • Serial number
10. You can verify these details and if you find any errors, you can get them rectified.

Finding voter details through the Voter Helpline Mobile App

The Voter Helpline Mobile app is developed by the Election Commission of India. It is available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This app also allows various services relating to your Electoral Listing.

You have to first download and install the application on your mobile phone. Then, you can register with your EPIC number, mobile number and email address the first time. Once you have registered and logged in, please follow the below steps to make corrections to your name:

1. Login with your mobile number and password
2. On the homepage of the app, you can use three options to look up your profile. You can either 'Search by Barcode' to scan the barcode on your Voter ID card or you can 'Search By Details' by entering your personal details. Third option is to search by your EPIC number mentioned on your voter ID card.
3. Once you have entered all the information, it will pull up the Voter Id details.
4. The app too will display all the details of the voter similar to the NVSP Portal.
5. The user can verify all the details and if he finds any errors, can apply for rectification.

Looking up Voter details via your State’s Chief Electoral Officer’s Website

Every state has a separate website for its Election Commission office. It is called the Chief Electoral Officer’s website. The Electoral Roll is published in a PDF format on these websites for users to download and peruse.

1. Login to your state’s Chief Electoral Officer’s website
2. Look for the option ‘Pdf Electoral Rolls’ and click on that
3. On the next page, select the District name and Constituency name
4. It will give you an option to download the PDF Electoral Roll for the selected constituency
5. You can download it on your local drive and look for your details using a name search or EPIC number search
6. Please note that you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader install on the computer to be able to view the file

What should I do if my name is not on the electoral roll?

If your name is not found on the latest Electoral Roll, you can register your name by submitting Form 6 with relevant documents. You can register online through the NVSP Portal, the Voter Helpline App or at your nearest Electoral Office.

How do I change or rectify details of my Electoral Data?

If you find any errors in the electoral data or you need to do some updation, you should use Form 8 to get them updated or rectified.