Visakhapatnam Finishes Major Voter Roll Overhaul Affecting 2 Million Citizens
District Collector M. Abhishikth Kishore confirmed the digitisation of over 20 lakh voter forms ahead of the July 31 draft roll release. The Special Intensive Revision has significantly reduced data discrepancies and unmapped records.
Data Integrity and Logical Discrepancy Reductions
Visakhapatnam District Collector M. Abhishikth Kishore announced the completion of enumeration form digitisation for all 20,23,009 electors. This milestone, part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-2026, covered voters across 1,980 polling stations. The administration focused on refining the database by processing information from submitted forms while identifying voters who are deceased, duplicated, or have shifted addresses.
Technical corrections were a primary focus of this revision. The administration successfully reduced "no mapping" cases from 1,80,725 to 27,555, representing just 1.36% of total voters. Logical discrepancies saw a sharp decline from 5,48,723 to 2,02,323, affecting approximately 10% of the electorate. Following these updates, the volume of legal notices required after the draft publication dropped from over 7 lakh to 2,29,878.
Timeline for Draft Roll and Public Feedback
The draft electoral roll is scheduled for public release on July 31. Notably, 2,40,209 voters categorized as absent, shifted, deceased, or duplicate (ASDD) will be omitted from this preliminary list. This exclusion follows a rigorous field verification process conducted for individuals who failed to submit enumeration forms by the July 14 deadline.
Citizens can review their status and file claims or corrections during a one-month window from July 31 to August 30. The administration provides the following channels for assistance:
- Submit Form 6 for new inclusions in the roll.
- Submit Form 8 for any necessary data corrections.
- Contact the Election Commission helplines at 1950 or 0891-2590100.
- Visit constituency or district-level assistance desks for manual verification.
Final Publication Schedule
Once the period for objections and claims concludes, officials will finalize the database. The district administration plans to publish the official final electoral roll on October 3, 2026. This comprehensive update ensures the voter registry is accurate and authenticated ahead of upcoming cycles.
Source: The Hindu — News
