ECI Resolves Two-Decade-Outdated Legacy Concern of Related EPIC Numbers, Says It Had No Affect on Election Outcomes

Tarun Karthick

Sri Vijaya Puram, 13 May 2025

In a big step in the direction of guaranteeing the accuracy and integrity of India’s electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has efficiently resolved a virtually 20-year-old legacy challenge involving the issuance of comparable Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers to real voters.

The challenge, which dates again to 2005, arose as a result of decentralised and inconsistent use of alphanumeric sequence by completely different Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) throughout States and Union Territories. In some circumstances, related EPIC numbers have been inadvertently issued to electors in several Assembly constituencies, primarily resulting from overlapping or erroneously reused sequence.

To deal with this, the ECI launched an intensive sanitization drive involving the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all 36 States and UTs and the EROs of all 4,123 Assembly constituencies. The electoral database—comprising over 99 crore registered voters and overlaying 10.5 lakh polling stations—was scrutinised. On common, every polling station homes round 1,000 electors.

The Commission discovered that situations of comparable EPIC numbers have been extraordinarily uncommon, with a mean of only one case in each 4 polling stations. Field-level verification confirmed that the affected people have been bona fide voters residing in several polling areas. All such electors have since been issued contemporary EPICs with distinctive numbers to eradicate any future discrepancies.

The drawback’s roots have been traced to the pre-delimitation interval of 2005–2008, when modifications in Assembly constituency boundaries and errors in transitioning to new EPIC sequence led to occasional duplication or typographical errors in quantity task.

Importantly, the ECI clarified that the presence of comparable EPIC numbers didn’t compromise electoral integrity. Since a voter can solely forged their vote on the polling station the place they’re registered as an strange resident, duplication of EPIC numbers had no bearing on election outcomes.

The decision of this legacy challenge marks one other milestone within the ECI’s ongoing efforts to take care of a clear and dependable electoral roll for the world’s largest democracy. (Story Based on PR)