Issue of duplicate voter IDs resolved in several states
Such duplicate EPICs were identified by state, corrected, and then reissued, ECI officials asking not to be named said.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has resolved all instances of duplicate Voter ID cards ( Elector Photo Identity Cards, EPICs) across several states, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Such duplicate EPICs were identified by state, corrected, and then reissued, ECI officials asking not to be named said.
While the cards have new numbers they also include the old EPIC numbers, in a bid to avoid any confusion where old numbers might still be referenced, the officials added.
“This was a legacy issue. Approximately , 300,000 EPICs have been rectified; 75% of these duplicates were issued before 2008 in a specific alphanumeric series. We have ensured that voters received the new cards and haver completed the process well before our three-month deadline of June,” one of them said.
The issue came to light in March, when opposition parties including the Trinamool Congress flagged the issue, accusing ECI of voter fraud and manipulation. The commission responded by clarifying that “duplicate EPICs did not imply fake voters”, adding that voters can only vote at the polling station in which they are registered, regardless of the EPIC number.
Officials explained the way some EPICs across states sported identical numbers. “Before all state electoral roll databases were shifted to ERONET–a web-based platform used to manage electoral roll data–many states conducted these operations manually and in a decentralised manner. As a result, some states used the same alphanumeric series, leading to duplication,” the first official added.
To be sure, the ECI is yet to address the issue of so-called repeat EPICs– where multiple voter ID cards have been given to the same elector, officials said.
Sources said the Commission currently uses systems based on Demographically Similar Entries (DSEs) and Photographically Similar Entries (PSEs) to detect potential duplicates. DSEs match voter details such as name, relation name and type, age, and gender, while PSEs analyse photographs.
“Both DSEs and PSEs are identified using deep learning technology within the ERONET platform. These can be used to detect and delete duplicates within or across constituencies in a state. However, the process is extremely time-consuming and has not been carried out on a pan-India scale due to scalability challenges,” a second ECI official said.