Multiple voter IDs generated for single individual during special revision

During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken to remove duplicate entries in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, instances have emerged where multiple Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) were generated for a single person. Following a report by The Hindu, the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has admitted that these discrepancies occurred due to procedural circumstances during data processing.

The report by The Hindu stated that even after the completion of the Special Intensive Revision, at least 803 voter IDs were linked to 397 people in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. The report also indicated that in some cases, the same EPIC number appeared in the final electoral rolls of two different Assembly constituencies.

The Chief Electoral Officer's office clarified that during the SIR, some applicants submitted more than one Form 6 application to add their names via the Citizen Service Portal. Since these applications were processed independently, multiple EPIC numbers were inadvertently generated for the same individual. The primary objective of the SIR process was to identify and remove such discrepancies through a comprehensive revision of the electoral roll to prepare a 'clean roll'. While there was a mechanism in this phased revision process to identify repeated applications, the system processed them 'independently', resulting in multiple voter IDs appearing in the final list.

Explaining the appearance of the same EPIC number in two different constituencies, the Chief Electoral Officer's office stated that in some cases, Form 8 applications for migration to another constituency were approved, and the voters' names were included in the lists of their new constituencies. However, the corresponding Form 7 applications to remove names from their old constituencies remained pending. The office further stated that this was because the electoral roll operations were suspended in accordance with legal provisions before the final publication of the roll.

The Hindu highlighted seven such cases and 14 entries where the same EPIC ID number was issued in two different constituencies. The Chief Electoral Officer's office stated that both instances—individuals having multiple EPIC numbers and the same EPIC number appearing in two constituencies—are the result of the 'application-processing workflow'. All such cases have been sent to the respective District Election Officers, Additional District Election Officers, and Electoral Registration Officers for strict verification and necessary corrective measures as per the law.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was a special process undertaken to correct errors in the electoral roll and remove duplicate entries. The aim of this process was to make the electoral roll more accurate and transparent.