THE HINDU EDITORIAL

By
Anushka_Academy
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​Double trouble: On elections, the EPIC number and the voter

The Aadhaar seems the default bet to restrict a voter to one polling location

The integrity of the electoral system in India is dependent upon the confidence reposed in it by prospective voters and the participatory political parties. In recent years, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has drawn flak — from overblown to deserved reasons — from political parties and civil society activists concerned about trends in Indian democracy. A new complaint after recent State elections relates to the increased number of electors in the Assembly polls when compared to the numbers registered in the general election for the same year (2024). While a report in The Hindu found that such discrepancies in electorate registration were not unusual when compared to previous election cycles, the question (raised vociferously by the Opposition Congress) as to how a State such as Maharashtra registered an increase of 48 lakh voters in just six months since the general election has not been adequately answered by the ECI. This along with the ECI’s disclosure that the nature of registration allowed for different electors to have the same Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) number, has allowed Opposition parties, particularly the Trinamool Congress, to raise questions about the credibility of the registration process. What is worrisome is the possibility of electors voting across States.

Prima facie, this discrepancy in EPIC numbers — which the ECI has averred that it will rectify by updating the numbers in its voter database to make them unique — is not problematic. Even if the EPIC number is shared by different voters, they can only vote with their verified ids. Yet, the larger problem, of a possibility of a voter having multiple EPIC numbers across different States, calls the process in question. For example, a migrant voter can vote in a particular State of residence and in his/her home State if elections are held in close succession as there is a good possibility of the duplicate EPIC number remaining in the database. The most effective solution would be to link the Aadhaar number and biometric verification for voting. But this is still not foolproof. The Aadhaar’s purpose is to identify residents, and not citizens, and would have to be supplemented by another proof for voting eligibility. Second, an Aadhaar number on electoral rolls could result in misuse such as profiling, and the ECI has to mask it when the rolls are made available to political parties. Besides, biometric verification for de-duplication should be supplemented with clear alternative identity verification as the former has the potential of excluding genuine voters because of technological failures. The ECI must be open to undertaking a clear de-duplication exercise that will allow a voter to have only one EPIC number and voter id, with the eligibility to vote only in their area of residence.