The Unofficial Manual of Rigging Voter Rolls:

By the Local Indian Poilitician

How to deny the common citizen his vote?

Since in a first past the post democratic system, the votes are the beginning and end of all electoral arithmetic, the politicians have mastered the art of subverting the voter registration. In this article, we shall detail how this is done. Many of you, your family members, friends or colleagues would have gone to the Voter registration office and found them to be bureaucratic or incompetent. It is neither. It is dishonesty by clever design.

In the table below, we will give the common techniques used to rebuff the potential voter and the correct rule (excerpted from the Election Commission ERO Handbook). You may be surprised how crude the techniques are and how half truths and patent lies are used but notethat these are first hand experiences of citizens who went to try and register to vote.

They essentially fall into a 3 step process

1. Turn them away with a lie or a half truth2. IF they still persist, make them come to the ERO on a working day in the limited hours that a

government works many times by coming up with newer requirements each time till they drop of exhaustion and give up

3. If they still persist, ask them to do something which they can’t do which is not the citizens job.

Here we enumerate all the lies and half truths used to drive away the citizen and deny his vote.

Technique Explanation and correct positionYou can’t register here. You have to register in your home town

This is used against students. We excerpt below the position of the Election Commission. Clearly the option is available to the students and not to the EROs.

Students, if otherwise eligible, living in a hostel or mess or lodge more or less continuously, going back to his normal home or place of residence only for short periods, can be held to be ordinarily resident in the place where the hostel or mess or lodge is situated. However, if they so wish, they have the option of retaining their enrollment at their residence with their parents instead. [During intensive

revision, students shall not be enumerated at their hostels. They shall be enrolled subsequently on application in Form 6 with bonafide student and hostel resident certificate]. Also refer to para 5 of chapter IV

Registrations are closed now. We don’t know when it will open again. Read the papers and you will know.

The excerpt from the ERO Handbook is a real eye opener.

The electoral registration system in India is essentially in the nature of a continuous updation, even though this is not widely known or utilized except during the periods when elections are held. As per the law (Section 23 & 24 of RPA, 1950), applications for inclusion/deletion of names or modifications of entries in the roll can be given at any time after the final publication of the rolls until the next draft publication, even after the election process has started, but during the latter, the requests can be acted upon upto the last date (3.00 pm) of nomination of candidates only. During the period between the last date of nominations and the date of completion of the electoral process, even though application can be received, no requests can be acted upon till the conclusion of the elections

Student Declaration Form given by college is not acceptable as proof.

As the excerpt below shows – student and hostel resident certificate is acceptable as proof to the Election Commission but to the local officials who “know better” that is not enough. Colleges verify borth certificate, school leaving certificate and many other details of the students. They are in a better position to judge the veracity of students identity than ration card agencies, RTO who have routinesly issued such documents to terrorists. However this does not matter to local election officials who use this lies to make live very difficult for students andprevent them from getting registered. Pune has over 4 lakh students who have come from outside Pune – most of whom are not registered. On the other hand, the law allows even those living on pavement without a

residence to vote. Our law is so generous that even pavement dwellers, nomads and gypsies can vote (rightly so) but the implementation is so cleverly done so that students cant vote.

They shall be enrolled subsequently on application in Form 6 with bonafide student and hostel resident certificate].

Ch III Cl 5 pp16

On the other hand even persons living in sheds and persons living on pavements without any roof are eligible for enrolment provided they are ordinarily resident in the sheds or on pavements in a particular area, do not change the place of residence and are otherwise identifiable.

You have not submitted FORM 001A or Form 001B EC clearly states that there is no need to submit form 001B or however worded it as “there is no need to submit a separate form” providing enough leeway to which ever local party has infiltrated the government machinery to twist the system to their advantage. When a person takes his/her whole family’s form, this trick is used to reject the remaining forms and send him back. If you ask for a written rejection, you will be stonewalled and will not get it.

The applications for inclusion, deletion, transposition or correction have to be made in Form 6, 7, 8 and 8A. In the context of photo-rolls, all persons desirous of getting enrolled as elector with photograph, must submit their photographs (in duplicate) along with Form 6 (for inclusion) itself. There is no need to submit a separate Form (001A) for this purpose and the EROs should not encourage this practice. Similarly, all electors desirous of getting their photographs corrected, replaced or added should

submit their photograph (in duplicate) along with Form 8 (for corrections).

There is no need to submit any separate Form (001B) and the practice should be discouraged

Students are Trisankus – in natural course they can neither be registered in their homes nor in their city of studies.

Enrolment of students living in hostel/lodge: During intensive revision, when a de novo enumeration is ordered to prepare electoral rolls afresh, the enumerators shall not enumerate the name of any student staying away from their guardians on the basis of declaration by other members of the household. They shall not be enumerated in their hostels either, during intensive revision. They can however be enrolled as voters in hostel/residence on application in Form 6 alongwith a certification of being bonafide student and resident in prescribed format (Annexure 4.1)

You have been registered in some other constituency before. So you have to first go there and delete you name and get an acknowledgement on Form 7 (deletion form) and submit the Form 7 (addition form) with your duly filled up Form 6.

As you can clearly see from this excerpt, this is not the citizen’s job. This is the job of the State. This is an utter lie perpetrated to ensure that those from outside that city cannot vote. Since local parties have populated the government cadres well, this trick is used most often so that national parties don’t come into prominence in states fed with up local parties.

60. One of the important checks and supervision to be exercised is with reference to the inclusion of any of the names through Form 6 (except a fresh entrant on coming of age) which would normally require corresponding deletion in some other part of electoral roll of the same or some other constituency. Therefore, while accepting any Form 6 during the period of continuous updation it should be ensured that the declaration about the period of stay at the new address and also

the address of previous residence is completely filled up. In the claim application the claimant has to give a declaration that either his name has not been included in the Electoral Roll for that particular Constituency in which he seeks enrolment or any other Constituency or that his namemay have been included in the Electoral Roll of a particular constituency to be specifically mentioned by him in his application in which he was ordinarily resident earlier at the address mentioned in the application and, if so, he requests that the samemay be excluded from that electoral roll. ERO should inform the ERO of the other Constituency and that other ERO shall, on receipt of the information, strike out the applicant’s name from the relevant part of the roll of the constituency under his jurisdiction and send an intimation to the ERO of the constituency where the elector has shifted

Ensure that large housing societies don’t have separate Section or Part number. This is done so that such large voter blocks

find it extremely tough to get registered to vote. This is totally against how the roll should be prepared. Even a 5 year old child would arrange its toys better than this – this begs the question is this incompetence or design ?

See excerpt below which lays out how electoral rolls are to be prepared.

Similarly, in urban area, each housing complex/ society/ or even a multi-story building should be put under separate sections within a part.

Ensure that electoral rolls are in only local languages so that outsiders cant check their registration easily

As per Clause 46 of ERO Handbook, ERO should provide rolls in alternate language also. By this logic all new areas of Pune which have heavy migration from outside states, the rolls should be published in English also.

Language of the electoral roll shall be as directed by the ECI under Rule 4 of R E Rules. According to the extant policy, the electoral rolls of an Assembly Constituency, where more than 20% of the electors speak and use a different language than the official language and the number of people literate in that minority language and script is significantly large, shall be printed and published in the majority as well as that minority language.

We cant accept bulk applications as it is against the rules.

As with all other tricks, this is a half-truth. Until sometime back bulk applications were not accepted. Since 2008, this has been changed with some corrections. The excerpt from ERO Handbook is below.

These applications, only during continuous updation period can be given in bulk and can be received as such, provided the following conditions are scrupulously followed –

4. The person (Volunteer) submitting applications in bulk presents applications

only in respect of that area which is covered by that part of electoral roll in which the person (Volunteer) is enrolled as an elector; 2. The person (Volunteer) must be a registered voter of that part having an EPIC; 3. While presenting the applications in bulk, the person (Volunteer) must enclose a covering letter with running list of application (basic particulars) being forwarded and duly authenticating the substance in the applications;

5. The person (Volunteer) must also give a declaration that he/she is aware of

the penal provisions of the Section 31 of RPA, 1950

Refuse to give acknowledgment and say “ Madam or Sir” is not here. Leave it here and we will do it.

This is against the Election Commission Norms.

All forms are designed to have stubs for receipt and all submitted forms need to be given a receipt.

Please put in the part and section number on your voter registration form

This is not the job of the voter. If this were to be done by the voter the form should have a field for it.

Change the ERO office location on the last few days available for registration before the election.

This is done so that no one knows where the ERO is and hence cannot submit their forms for voter registration

If after all this, you are a pest and still do manage to get registered, there is a second bag of tricks used to ensure that you can’t vote

Bag of tricks Explanation

Lose the forms or the data This is done on a regular basis in most states. If you can find one IT contract where the contract will surely get renewed if he loses the data, it must be inagency which does Indian voter registration.

Register the names wrongly or in the wrong place. This ensures that come polling day you will not be able to find your name in the pollign booth where all your neighbours go.

Delete your name or shift it to another section / part.

Names are deleted from the role without any notice or reason. Sometimes one spouse is left and the other spouse deleted.

With such a well developed design, is it any wonder that most middle class people don’t vote? If we have agreed to be a democracy should not the government make it easy to vote for everyone? The Election Commission has created the template for doing this but this is cleverly obstructed at the state level. Is it not more than co-incidence that only state level parties are doing very well in national elections ?

Why do the government officers behave this way ?

In matters economic, the answer lies in the money trail. In matters politic the answer lies in the vote trail. Let us examine that for answers to our questions.

In a city like Pune with a population of 40-45 lakh, there should be at least 25-28 eligible voters. However a registered voter is around 18 lakhs of which there are many errors which are likely to be in the range of 3-4 lakh. In the last Lok Sabha Election, the total number of votes cast was around 7.7 lakhs. If one removes votes purchased/cornered using money, muscle or liquor and fake votes cast, it is likely that genuine votes cast in Pune will be only in the region 2.5-5 lakh votes ie about 10-20% of the real constituency size of 25-28 lakhs. From these figures, it is clear why voter registration is so archaic and full of faults. If it were to be improved, then instantly these leaders who win in the current format of elections would find it extremely difficult if not impossible to get elected.

Thus prima facie, it appears that there is a nexus between local voter registation officers and the local politicians.

Unique Identity Database: Don’t expect the cat to bell itself !!

A Unique Identity Number database would solve all these problems but this has not happened for decades now. This analysis also answers the question “Why Indian governments do no want to implement a Unique Identity Number system for each individual?”

This is shocking considering that such a system would help us in following ways

Our police forces have great difficulty in tracking terrorists as most of them have excellent bonafide IDs arising from lack of centralized data. A UIN system will help police get ahead of the game.

We are giving away huge subsidies in excess of Rs 300,000- 500,000 crores ( subsidized rice, subsidized power, subsidized fertilizer, loan waivers, assured income schemes under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), rations under BPL schemes, colour TVs, mobile phones). A Unique Identity database would help the government direct the database to the actually needy ones and thereby totally remove poverty in a very short time frame – yet it is not implemented … why ?.

If UIN database were to be set up, the current political leaders would be wiped out electorally in a very short while at least in most cities and areas which have faced migration and development over the last two decades. So it is naïve to believe that a truly efficient database would be built by this current political class.

So where do go from here …

Till now, the middle class apathy was blamed for the lack of good leaders. It was said that discerning voters do not vote. These are all elaborate lies and the middle class has been made to feel guilty and then silenced. The truth is that the election system is rigged from voter registration stage.

As we are going through the voter registration process, we are finding a system designed to deny most voters their vote. As more of us go through this process and share the details with others, we will be able to see through this game in its entirety

However all in not lost. The Election Commission Guidelines are citizen friendly and designed to help everyone get their right to vote. It is the state government apparatus which is hijackcing this process. This needs to tackled through concerted and united action of citizens and civil groups.

The following steps are necessary:

1. Citizens should check begin to familirize themslves with the Election procedures. Since this is a technical subject, they should create a study group consisting of lawyers or professionals who can read the ERO Handbook and be well versed with all rules and procedures.

2. They should aware of the citizens’ rights and the processes to be employed by Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) for each activity. Falsification of data by ERO brings imprisonment under Representation of People’s Act 1950, hence ERO will become dligent once citizens seek information on anmolaies and spread the information widely in society. (During some of our visits, some officers were very scared that we were recording their untruths).They should use start writing letters as an organized group with their demands, seeking information on erroneous procedures adopted etc and if no response is available, they should RTI for these demands.

3. They should use RTI to get in writing from the ERO the errors for which there cannot be any explanation. Use RTI to also expose change in address, lack of part and section no etc. Once the government machinery knows that citizens are vigilant they cannot be as brazen as they are about it as they are now.

4. They should network with other citizen groups within the city and in other cities so that they are aware of problems and solutions adopted elsewhere. This will ensure that effective solutions that are invented by solutions are adopted nationwide without any delay.

5. Those who have access to people in TV media should organize a few sting videos to expose this game played by electoral registration officers and take them to the drawing rooms of the entire nation.

6. Get prepared to come out on the streets and protest until the entire procedure is cleaned up.

Are we ready for this challenge ?