As the largest democracy globally, India has continued to be an example of conducting free and fair elections. Having the second-largest national population globally with 1.38 billion people, it remains India’s responsibility to reflect the vox populi on the ballot boxes. So, as a voter, you can conduct an electoral roll search to ensure your opinions can be expressed during the polls.

The electoral roll is an all-inclusive list of registered eligible voters for a specific jurisdiction pertaining to a particular election. This documentation is done by the Election Commission of India, an autonomous constitutional body with the highest authority to decide electoral frameworks of this country. Therefore, the commission also remains responsible for updating the details of this record recurrently.

Being a federal democracy, rules and regulations of electoral procedures can differ from one state to another in India. Therefore, in certain states of the country, there are two distinct types of electoral rolls in use:

• The electoral roll for panchayat and municipality elections
• Electoral roll for parliamentary and assembly elections

In India, every individual over legal age of 18 years old has a constitutional right to cast a ballot if he or she can meet specific criteria:

• A voter is a residential or non-residential citizen of India
• An NRI voter cannot have citizenship from another country besides India
• This elector is of sound mental health
• There is a permanent address of this voter
• The voter is not part of any special categories
• An elector has not declared financial bankruptcy

If you meet these aforementioned categories, you can register yourself in the electoral roll for the constituency in which you reside. In order to do so, you can submit the required paperwork to election authorities via online or offline methods.

After proper verification of documents, authorities will be including your name and associated details in the electoral roll. Please note that, other than the Election Commission of India, other entities responsible for the publication and updating of this list include:

• State Election Commissions
• The Chief Electoral Officers of these respective states

Once an updated list has been published, you can conduct an electoral roll search to ensure all of your details have been recorded without any error.

In order to search your name in the electoral roll, you will need to follow these simple steps as discussed below:

Step 1: Visit electoral roll-oriented portal of the Election Commission of India

Step 2: Click on tab titled “Link to Voter Search”

Step 3: Choose option “Search in Electoral Roll”

Step 4: Select “Search by Details” or “Search by EPIC No.” as it best suits you

Step 5: Input relevant data as required. For EPIC-based search, you will have to offer the number of your Election Photo Identity Card and name of your state. On the other hand, to conduct a personal details-based electoral roll search, you will have to provide data like:

• Your name
• The name of your spouse or parent, as fitted
• Your age or your date of birth
• The state where you reside in

Step 6: After filling out these details, enter captcha code exactly how it is being displayed on your screen. Please keep in mind that this code is case-sensitive

Step 7: A new tab called “Number of Records Found” will be shown onscreen. Under header “Action”, click on the button with words “View Details”

Step 8: All relevant voter information about you, as recorded in the electoral roll, will be available on this next screen. These data points include details such as:

• Assembly Constituency
• Parliamentary Constituency
• Gender
• Polling Station, etc.

There are manifold benefits to keeping an up-to-date electoral roll for elections in India. Some of these reasons include the following:

• Such a comprehensive document can streamline ballot casting procedure on the day of an election
• Risk of electoral duplicity can be largely mitigated
• Keeping a tab on the percentage of total voter turnout for specific elections
• Voter registration details can remain open for public scrutiny
• Different levels of government bodies in a federal democracy like India can share voter-related information among themselves without getting obstructed by red tapes

As it is relevant from the discussion above, maintaining an adequate record of eligible enlisted voters is a cornerstone of establishing a representative and constitutional government. In order to ensure that you can practice your right to vote, it is always ideal to conduct an electoral roll search beforehand.