Voting is a crucial part of any democracy and India is no exception to that. With general elections of 2019 approaching and state elections to be held before that, it’s always better to check if your name is still on electoral rolls in India. Voter lists keep changing in the country and sometimes it means that your name could be missing from the electoral rolls.
If you want to vote in any election, whether it’s the Parliamentary elections of 2019 or state elections, you need to have a voter identity card issued by the Election Commission of India and your name should be on the electoral rolls. Just having a voter ID is not enough for you to cast your vote. That’s why it’s very important to check if your name is on voter list well in advance of the elections.
How to check if your name is on the voter list
Follow these steps to check if your name is on the electoral rolls in India.
- Go to the National Voter Services Portal’s (NVSP) Electoral Search page.
- Here you can search for your name on the voter list by two methods — manually entering all of your details or simply by entering your Electoral Photo ID Card (EPIC) number. The EPIC number is mentioned in bold letters on your voter identity card.
If you have the EPIC number mentioned on your voter ID
If you have an EPIC number, go through these steps to check if your name is on the voter list.
- Visit the NVSP Electoral Search page.
- Click or tap on Search by EPIC No.
- Enter your EPIC number, select the state from the drop-down menu, and key in the code you see on the image. Then click or tap Search.
- If your name is on electoral rolls, you will be able to see it below the Search button. If nothing shows up, there’s a good chance that your name is not on the voter list.
If you don’t have your EPIC number
In case you don’t have your voter identity card with you and thereby don’t have your EPIC number, these steps should help you check if your name is on the voter list.
- Visit the NVSP Electoral Search page.
- Click or tap on Search by Details.
- Key in all details including your name, gender, age, Assembly constituency, etc. as described on the page. Then enter the code you see on the captcha image, and finally, click or tap on Search.
- If you see a result in the area below the Search button, that means your name is on the voter list. If not, then it’s probably not there.
Voter identity cards in India don’t always have correct spellings of people’s names. We know several people whose names have been misspelled on their voter ID cards and there’s a chance that the Search by Details method isn’t yielding the desired results because the spelling of the name doesn’t match that on the Election Commission’s database. That’s why we suggest that you look for your name on electoral rolls via the EPIC number as it’s far less likely to return a false result.
Some states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Tamil Nadu also let you check whether your name is on voter lists via SMS. To do this, head to the Election Commission’s page for Chief Electoral Officers’ websites and select your state from the list, then click Go. After this, you’ll have to find the option that lets you search electoral rolls. This is where each state’s CEO lists whether there is an option for checking your voter list status via SMS.
