ECI directs officers to provide political parties with searchable PDF voter rolls

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed electoral registration officers to provide recognised political parties with hard copies and searchable PDF versions of draft and final electoral rolls for each polling station, with the digital copies excluding voters’ photographs.

The October 15 directive applies to the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union Territories and also requires officials to share lists of additions, deletions and modifications.

“ERO, immediately after draft and final publication, in accordance with Rule 11(c) & 22 (c) of the Registration of the Electors Rule, 1960 (RER, 1960), shall supply free of cost two copies (one hard copy & one soft copy in readable PDF format) of each separate polling station to every recognised political party,” the poll body said.

The order also directs officials to share lists of additions, deletions and modifications to help parties track changes in voter records.

The directive comes amid controversy over the ECI’s revision of electoral rolls, with Opposition parties raising concerns about transparency and the risk of eligible voters being excluded.

The Commission currently uses scanned images in PDF format to display electoral rolls. Readable digital copies can be searched and analysed more easily, helping political parties check voter names and scrutinise changes at the polling-station level.

The controversy dates back to a 2018 Supreme Court case filed by Congress leader Kamal Nath, who sought voter lists in text format to help identify duplicate and bogus entries ahead of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. The Election Commission opposed the demand for searchable PDFs, citing privacy concerns and the risk of data mining.

In June 2025, Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge demanded consolidated, digital and machine-readable voter rolls for the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly elections, along with version histories and timestamps showing changes to the rolls.

The party also sought CCTV footage or videography from polling booths after 5pm on election day, citing questions about the rise in final voter turnout. Congress said access to the data would allow it to conduct its own analysis.

The ECI had then rejected the allegations as unsubstantiated and maintained that electoral rolls had been supplied to recognised parties during the regular revision process. It also argued that the demand for machine-readable lists was not tenable under the existing framework.