Election Commission to implement electronic death data integration to clean voter rolls

NEW DELHI: Introducing an important reform aimed at cleaning the electoral roll, the Election Commission on Thursday said it would obtain deaths registration data electronically from Registrar General of India, which maintains mandatory database of all births and deaths in line with the amendments made to Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD Act) in 2023. This would eliminate the dependence on field visits by the booth level officers (BLO) to gather data on dead voters in a household, so that they can be removed from the roll.

The BLO will, however, still be required to make field visits to re-verify the information of deaths received from the RGI database, said an EC official.

In two other reforms approved by commission on Thursday, the format of the voter information slips shall be revised to prominently display voter details; and standard photo identity cards issued to all BLOs to help the citizens recognise them and verify their identity. While the redesigned voter slip will make it easier for the electors to identify their polling station and for the polling officials to efficiently locate their names in the roll, the identity cards will help the citizens interact with BLOs more confidently during house-to-house visits for voter verification and registration.

As per the system followed so far for dead voters, either their kin could apply through Form 7 for removal of the deceased elector from the roll, followed by a verification visit by the BLO, or the BLO would himself initiate the process during a field visit for roll updation. Form 7 would then be processed by the ERO to remove the dead voter permanently from the roll. However, this process sometimes involved a time-lag between death of a voter and his removal from the roll, creating scope for bogus or unnecessary entries.

“The Commission will now obtain death registration data electronically from the RGI in line with Rule 9 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and Section 3(5)(b) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (as amended in 2023). This will ensure that the EROs receive timely information about registered deaths. This will also enable BLOs to re-verify the information through field visits, without waiting for a formal request under Form 7,” EC said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Sources said while the RBD (Amendment) Act, 2023, also allows RGI to share births database with the EC — since it can help ascertain when a citizen by birth turns 18 years of age and should be enrolled, this reform may need to wait longer as registration of births and deaths was made mandatory only in 2023. “For now, EC is focusing on getting data on deaths,” a senior officer told TOI.