MANGALURU: A 61-year-old Mangaluru resident has been wrongly declared dead by the Election Commission during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Karnataka, exposing what appears to be a glaring lapse in the voter verification process.
Donald Joseph Rego, a resident of Bejai in the Mangaluru City South Assembly constituency, discovered that his name had vanished from the draft electoral roll published on August 24. Later, he learned that his name had been included in the “dead” category under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) list.
The development shocked Rego, who questioned how such a classification could be made without any documentary proof. “To declare me dead, they need my death certificate. Who gave them my death certificate,” Rego asked, talking to TNIE.
Since discovering the error, Rego has visited the Booth Level Officer (BLO) and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) a couple of times to get his name restored.
According to him, officials are shifting responsibility for the mistake. While the AERO blames the BLO, the BLO blames a data entry operator who uploaded voter details through the SIR mobile application.
Rego alleged that the BLO had collected his enumeration form and handed it over for data entry, but failed to verify whether the uploaded information matched the original records.
“If I was shown as dead in the app, the BLO should have verified whether a death certificate had been produced before approving the entry,” he said. He said the BLO works as a clerk at the Regional Transport Office (RTO).
Rego has filed an online complaint with the Election Commission, seeking to correct the error. Following the BLO’s advice, he has also submitted Form 6 along with supporting documents to have his name restored in the electoral roll.
Dakshina Kannada Additional Deputy Commissioner Raju K said there is a provision to include any eligible living voter in the electoral roll through Form 6 upon submission of the required documents.