Everything You Must Know About The All Important Electoral Roll

What is an electoral roll?

The electoral roll is the list that includes the name of all those people who are eligible and registered to vote in a particular assembly or a constituency. This list is prepared by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of a given area. This roll is also known as the electoral register.

The importance of this list can be understood from the fact that even if you have a voter ID card but do not have your name in this list then you cannot vote. Having a name in this list means you can vote in local as well as national elections. To be eligible to register for this list the person has to be at least 18 years old according to the election commission laws.

This list is published every year. Thanks to the rising number of new voters, the list is updated every few weeks.

Electoral Registration Officer (ERO)

The Electoral Registration Officer is the person chosen by the election commission of India to also create and maintain electoral roll of his/her constituency for parliamentary as well as assembly elections. Not only that but the ERO also has the responsibility to ensure that the electoral roll is free from errors so that elections are held in free and fair manner.

He/she has the task of seeing that the electoral list does not have any bogus entries or impersonations in it. The ERO is a person who has knowledge about the rules and regulations of elections. Sometimes the officer might have to even perform quasi-judicial functions in case of disputes arising related to elections.

The ERO for a constituency is elected by election commission of India after consulting with state government under which that constituency falls. The Indian election commission also appoints assistant EROs under the main ERO. These assistant EROs help their in-charge to smoothly execute his responsibilities.

It is very easy to find the ERO of a particular area. The website of every Indian state election commission provides the voters the facility to find the ERO of their respective areas. So if you are Delhi voter who wants to know the ERO who prepared the electoral roll Delhi then all you have to do is head to the official website of Delhi election commission and get the details.

Electoral Registration

The process of electoral registration is very simple and easy. The voters can either register voter ID card online or offline. To register themselves, the voters will have to fill in Form 6 which is used for registering by new voters. They will have to submit this completely filled form to the ERO to get enrolled in the electoral roll of their constituency or assembly.

You can check the status of your electoral registration on the official website of election commission of your state. There is also a facility for those voters having their name in the electoral roll and want to make changes or update its details in the electoral list.

By choosing and filling the appropriate election commission India forms, the voters can alter their details. For example, if you are a voter from AP who wants to correct entries related to their name in the electoral roll AP then you will have to fill and submit Form 8.

Search Your Name In Electoral Roll

If you have applied for voter registration then it is very easy to search your name in the electoral roll. Almost all the Indian state election websites have provided the option for voters to check their name in the electoral list.

There are two options for the voters to find their names in the electoral roll prepared by the ERO of their area. They can go the official election website of their state which has a separate section for finding names in the electoral list. So if you are a voter from Goa searching for your name in the electoral roll Goa, then all that you will have to do is enter details about yourself such as name or house number or voter application ID and the result will show up that will show their name in the list.

Other way for voters to find whether their names are in the electoral roll is by using the mobile phone. They just have to send an SMS to the registered mobile number of their state election commission. Most of the time you will only have to send your voter application ID in the SMS.

On a side note, the election commission Uttar Pradesh is now also allowing those registered in electoral roll UP to even know their polling station through SMS service.