New Delhi (India), May 13: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has successfully resolved a nearly 20-year-old legacy issue concerning similar Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers. These similar numbers had been erroneously issued to genuine electors due to the use of similar series by different Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) since 2005.
To address this long-pending problem, the ECI initiated an extensive search across the electoral database, which includes over 99 crore electors. Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) from all 36 states and union territories, along with EROs from all 4,123 assembly constituencies across India, worked together in the verification process. With more than 10.50 lakh polling stations across the country, each polling station typically has around 1,000 electors.
The number of similar EPIC numbers found was minimal, with approximately one in every four polling stations affected. Field-level verification revealed that holders of these similar EPIC numbers were legitimate electors, but they were located in different assembly constituencies and polling stations. As a result, all affected electors have been issued new EPIC cards with unique numbers.
The issue originated in 2005 when various states and union territories used Assembly Constituency-wise alphanumeric series in a decentralized manner. This system was revised in 2008 after the delimitation of constituencies. However, some assembly constituencies mistakenly continued to use old series or, due to typographical errors, employed series assigned to other constituencies.
Despite the issuance of similar EPIC numbers, it is important to note that voters were listed only in the electoral rolls of their respective polling stations where they were ordinary residents. Therefore, the issue of similar EPIC numbers never interfered with voting at different polling stations and did not affect the results of any elections.
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