Pune: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has resolved a nearly two-decade-old legacy issue involving similar Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, weeding out approximately 2.6 lakh duplicate cards from the electoral database across the country.The exercise, which involved scrutinising records of over 99 crore electors across 10.5 lakh polling stations in all 4,123 assembly constituencies, has put to rest a problem that originated in 2005 due to the erroneous use of similar alphanumeric series by different electoral registration officers, an ECI official said. In an effort to refine electoral rolls and maintain accuracy, chief electoral officers of all 36 states and union territories, along with electoral registration officers, undertook an exhaustive search of the entire database to identify these anomalies.“With an average of approximately 1,000 electors per polling station, the number of similar EPIC numbers identified was minimal, averaging around one in every four polling stations,” the EC official said, emphasising the limited scope of the issue despite its long-standing nature.The field-level verification process revealed that individuals holding these similar EPIC numbers were genuine electors residing in different assembly constituencies and different polling stations. Such electors have now been issued new EPIC cards with unique numbers, ensuring complete elimination of duplicates from the system.The issue dates back to 2005, when various states and UTs were independently using different alphanumeric series for each assembly constituency. It underwent a mandatory change in 2008 following the delimitation of constituencies. However, during the crucial transition period, some assembly constituencies inadvertently continued using either the old series or, due to typographical errors, adopted series allocated to other constituencies, creating the similarity in EPIC numbers.“This was a legacy issue that required systematic resolution,” a senior ECI official said.Officials clarified that the existence of similar EPIC numbers never compromised electoral integrity or influenced any election outcome. Every voter’s name remains registered in the electoral roll of the specific polling station where they are ordinary residents.“Possessing an EPIC with a similar number never enabled any individual to cast a vote at a different polling station. Therefore, the issue of similar EPIC numbers could not have influenced the outcome of any elections,” the official said. Ahead of Bihar polls, upgraded VTR on the cardsThe ECI is set to launch a new technology-driven system to provide faster updates on voter turnout percentages during elections. The initiative aims to reduce delays associated with the earlier manual reporting process and ensure timely public communication, an EC official said on Tuesday. Currently, under Rule 49S of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, presiding officers must submit Form 17C with vote counts to polling agents at the close of polls — a legal requirement that remains unchanged. However, the update process for the Voter Turnout Reporting (VTR) app, which shares approximate turnout trends with the public, is being improved for quicker data availability. Under the new system, presiding officers will directly enter voter turnout data into the ECINET app every two hours on polling day. This data will be automatically aggregated at the constituency level and published bi-hourly, as before. The data will be entered immediately after polling ends, before the presiding officers leave the station, reducing delays and enabling near real-time updates on the app.The updated process also accommodates offline entry where mobile connectivity is poor, syncing data once network access resumes. This upgraded VTR App will be integrated into the ECINET system ahead of the Bihar elections.Previously, voter turnout data was manually collected by Sector Officers and passed through several layers, causing four- to five-hour delays or more.
