With elections round the corner, district administrations in the central region of the State are busy processing the enormous voter enrolment data scouting for redundancy.
The Election Commission, using a special software package, checks duplication of voters’ names.
For the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Commission, based on the feedback from district returning officers, has tweaked the software package to avoid duplication.
The EC has conducted continuous enrolment and special enrolment camps across eight districts of Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Karur, Perambalur, Ariyalur, and Pudukottai, to enrol new voters and those seeking correction of particulars.
The vast paper trail makes it a cumbersome process, say election officials. Many people have submitted applications for inclusion of their names without checking the draft electoral rolls published recently.
In order to avoid redundancy, the EC has rolled out the software that compares existing voters list across the district with the details submitted by the applicant.
Comparing the data, based on certain criteria, redundancy is eliminated. The de-duplication (otherwise known as redundancy) check is performed on the database containing the voters list. After an application is received by the staff manning the polling station, the details are fed into a temporary database.
The temporary data is then collated from all polling stations and verified through a five-field verification process where duplicate applications are rejected.
The five key components are applicant’s name; relationship type; relation name; address; and gender are verified with the existing database.
Based on the outcome, a table verification is performed to cross-check the details of the applicant.
Speaking to The Hindu, Tiruchi district returning officer and collector Jayashree Muralidharan said about 313 applications have been rejected. “But we are waiting for the new software package from Chennai. The new package is expected to check for redundancy in the updated voter’s list,” Ms. Muralidharan said.
“The new package is undergoing a few technical upgrades to accommodate changes in the system,” said Praveen Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, over phone from Chennai.
The CEO has instructed district electoral authorities that only those persons who were enrolled in a particular polling station would be allowed to vote there.
