BENGALURU: The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Karnataka on Monday published the draft electoral roll as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. According to data, Karnataka has 4,46,80,151 electors, of whom 2,22,01,727 are male, 2,24,75,553 female and 2,871 others.
Till June 16, 2026, when the electoral rolls were frozen, Karnataka had 5,54,32,314 electors of whom 2,75,89,406 were male, 2,78,37,913 female and 4,995 others.
As part of the SIR exercise, 1,07,96,415 citizens were listed under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) category and were “cleaned” from the rolls.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines while releasing the draft roll, CEO Karnataka, V Anbukkumar said the draft electoral roll is now uploaded on the CEO Karnataka website, and citizens must check only this list and not published by any other. The process of issuing notices to 9.82% (43,81,335) electors listed under anomaly/logical discrepancies (20,35,835) and no-mapping (23,45,500) category will now start. The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will start handing over notices to voters seeking clarifications from August 31, he said.
Soon after getting the notices, citizens should appear in person before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) with the specified documents (one of the 11 listed documents in the enumeration form along with Aadhaar) for verification. Even if voters upload their documents online using the scanner printed on the notice letter, they will have to physically appear before the ERO for final verification, he said.
Special camps in high ASDDO areas to help enrol electors: Official
While the District Election Officer (DEO) and ERO can use innovative and latest communication methods to connect with electors to share notices, only physically handed over notices with a photograph of the voter receiving it will be accounted for documentation, he added.
This is the second part of the SIR exercise with the claims and objections period being held from August 24 to September 23, 2026. This will run parallel to the notice phase/disposal of claims and objections from August 24 to October 22, 2026.
He said that during this phase, people can raise objections about other electors and file them before the ERO with a declaration. The ERO can also issue notices to any other elector not listed in the anomaly or no-mapping category, if any discrepancy in seeking clarification is found.
As part of the SIR exercise, the number of polling stations has also increased from 59,050 to 60,923. As per the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the maximum number of voters per polling station should not exceed 1,200.
The CEO said that after the rationalisation exercise, the polling station of individuals and their family members could have changed. While searching for names, citizens may have to scroll through neighbouring booths. The names of all those getting notices will be listed against their respective polling stations, panchayat and ward offices for citizens to verify.
The notice will state whether the elector is listed under no-mapping or anomaly category and the reason for the notice. It will also include the date, location and time of hearing along with the documents required. Notices will be issued only twice to electors and if they fail to appear, their names will be removed from the rolls.
To ensure unhindered and quick disposal of cases, the CEO office has roped in additional 3,926 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). They will do the same work as EROs and will be deployed where applications to be processed are high.
The electoral roll which was frozen from June 16 has been opened again. Citizens can now fill and submit Form-8 for corrections. It must be noted that in each application only four of the list eight categories can be filled for corrections. The process of correction has also been simplified. Citizens no longer need to fill forms for deletion and inclusion. They can just fill one Form-8 for correction with a declaration, he added.
From June 16 to August 23, the CEO Karnataka office received a total of 14,67,929 forms for inclusion and deletion. This includes 4,73,354 for Form-6 (inclusion/new voters); 3,880 for Form-6A (overseas new voters for inclusion); 67,307 for Form-7 (deletion) and 9,23,388 for Form-8 (corrections).
While submitting enumeration forms under the house-to-house enumeration phase, 2,19,47,478 electors submitted their fresh photographs. Officials in the CEO office said, this will be used while printing the new format EPIC cards.
Anbukkumar said those listed under absent and shifted categories can now fill Form-6 and 8. To help enrol electors, special camps will be organised in areas where the ASDDO list is high. All those who submit Forms 6, 7 and 8 before September 23 will be included in the final electoral rolls, to be published on October 27, 2026. Those who submit forms and documents after September 23, will be included in the supplementary rolls which will be released after the final rolls.
This is the first SIR exercise in Karnataka since 2002.