Multiple Elector Photo Identity Cards generated for same person during SIR, admits Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer

After The Hindu reported that at least 803 voter IDs were linked to 397 people in Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency even after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which was intended to weed out duplicate entries, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, admitted that the discrepancies flagged in the report were due to “procedural circumstances during data processing”.

The report highlighted instances of people holding multiple voter IDs within Mahadevapura, as well as cases where the same Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number appeared in the final electoral rolls of two different Assembly constituencies.

Multiple forms

In response, the CEO’s office said that during the SIR, some applicants had submitted multiple Form 6 applications (seeking inclusion) through the Citizen Service Portal. As these applications were “processed independently”, multiple EPIC numbers were inadvertently generated for the same individual.

However, the SIR was intended to identify and eliminate precisely such discrepancies through a comprehensive revision of the electoral rolls to get a “clean roll”. The phased revision process was meant to flag repeat applications, but the system processed them “independently”, allowing multiple voter IDs to slip into the final rolls.

Clarifying how identical EPIC numbers appeared in the final rolls of two constituencies, the CEO’s office said that in some cases, Form 8 applications seeking migration to another constituency had been approved and the electors’ names incorporated into the rolls of their new constituencies. However, the corresponding Form 7 applications seeking deletion of their names from the previous constituencies remained pending.

Frozen rolls

This was because electoral roll operations had been frozen in accordance with statutory provisions ahead of the final publication of the rolls, the CEO’s office said.

The Hindu had highlighted seven such cases, involving 14 entries where the same EPIC ID number was issued in two different constituencies.

The CEO’s office said that both instances of individuals having multiple EPIC numbers and identical EPIC numbers appearing across two constituencies were a result of “application-processing workflows”.

It added that the cases had been referred to the respective District Election Officers, Additional District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers for rigorous verification and necessary remedial action in accordance with the law.