The Complete Guide To Voters List

Since the election season is close by, voting has become a hot topic. Being a constitutional right, every person must exercise it. And among the most important things you need is having your name in the all important voters list. Irrespective of whether you are an experienced voter or a first time voter this is one list that you must be a part of. We give you an in depth look into what actually is a voters list and all the things that you must know about it to become a smart voter.

What is voters list?

It is the list compiled by the elections authorities of each area/constituency which consists of names of all the people eligible to vote. The list displays details about each person such as address, name. Every area/constituency has its very own voters list. Any person who is at least 18 years of age is eligible to enrol themselves for this list. This list is used as a reference by the election authorities on the day of voting. The importance of this list can be understood from the fact that if your name is not in this list, you simply cannot vote even if you have a voter ID card. One point to remember is that at any given point of time, a person can be registered in only one voters list. It is an offence to be registered in two different lists.

Why Do I Need To Enrol In It?

Being second most populated nation in the world, managing such a human pool is nothing short of being daunting to say the least. Especially when it comes to elections, it becomes even more challenging. There is every probability of bogus personnel being used to cast votes and gain unfair advantage. For this very purpose the concept of voters list has been implemented by the election commission of India. If you want to know what can probably happen without proper voters list then checkout this news.

How To Register Name In Voters List?

So that now you know how important this list is, we will give you a brief overview of how you, as a voter, can get your name in that all important list. For registering your name in the list you will have to fill in a form called Form 6. First and foremost, to fill in this form you have to be an Indian citizen. Basically the form asks details like name, address and other information. You are also required to make a declaration in the form. The form 6 can be download from the official website of the election commission of India. You can also get this form from the office of your state’s Electoral Roll Officer. Just go through our how to enrol for voters list online guide-cum-article which will give you comprehensive detail about the whole process and rest of all the things that you will need to know about filling form 6.

Check Your Name In Voter List Online

To ensure that your application has been successful and that your name is now included in the voters list, you can access the website of your state’s CEO. In case you are resident of Delhi then you can also send an SMS on 9211728082. The SMS should be in the format of ‘EPIC<space> <voter ID card number>’ without quotation marks. You can know more about how to find status of Voter ID application. To make it easy for the voters to confirm their name in list, every state has its own official election website which has the voters list. You can simply go to these sites to check voters list online and verify whether your name is present in the list or not. The websites of some states like Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa even have PDF of the voters list which you can download.

Voters List For Indian Staying Abroad

The number of Indians staying outside India is quite considerable. Many of these are genuinely interested in voting during the elections. For exactly this reason the election commission of India has made necessary arrangements for them so that they can register themselves for elections. In order to get registered, the NRIs will have to fill Form 6A in order to register their names in voters list. This form is different than Form 6 which is required by those Indians who are actually living in the country. In addition to filling in their personal information, the NRIs will also have to meet some additional conditions. Only when they fulfil these conditions will they be able to vote in the elections. You can know in detail about how Indians staying abroad can register for voters list. The NRIs can check their names in the voters list online on the website of the state under which their constituency comes.

Remove Your Name From Voters List

Until and unless there are forceful reasons, removing one’s name from the voters list is not at all suggested. After all it is one of the most important documents to be registered in. Still if you want to remove your name from the list, then the election commission of India has provided a solution for that as well. Just like every other process related to elections, removing one’s name from the list also involves filling a form. It is called Form 7. Although the form is little longer to fill, it is not at all complicated. You just have to be careful. Very soon we will have a post that will guide you on how to remove name from voters list.

Benefits Of Voters List

The voters list is flexible enough to accommodate changes in case you have relocated or want to update your details. If you have changed your constituency or your name or even address, you can still enrol in the list by simply filling the respective forms. It also helps in controlling the menace of bogus voting which otherwise was very rampant until voters list was introduced by election commission of India. Another great feature of voters list is that even after the final list is published it is open to changes. This process is continuos. Every year a summary revision of the list of respective booths is published. This enables the voters to apply for updates or changes which they want to make to their voters list entry.

Finally

Voters list is an indispensable part of elections. Without it, conducting fair elections is nearly impossible. It also gives an Indian citizen an opportunity to exercise one of their most important constitutional rights. In fact it is much more important than an election card. This is all that you will ever need to know about voters list. The fact that you have read the article all the way down till here means you are now much better informed about what is a voters list and everything related to it.