BHUBANESWAR: The State Election Commission (SEC) will conduct door-to-door survey from October 26 to November 7 to prepare electoral rolls for the 2027 panchayat and urban local body elections.
Addressing a media-conference on Thursday, state election commissioner Madhusudan Padhi said the draft electoral rolls will be published on January 1, 2027 while the final lists will be released on February 10 after verification of claims and objections. Voters will get 20 days to file claims and objections against entries in the draft rolls.
Padhi said the survey aims at ensuring all eligible voters in a family were listed under the same ward and polling booth, making the voting process more convenient.
The survey also aims to remove names of deceased and shifted voters, include eligible electors left out of the rolls and correct errors in household details and polling booth allocation. He said, “The pilot survey conducted across all 30 districts found that around 7.61 per cent of voters continued to be listed despite death or migration while 4.87 per cent of eligible voters were missing from the electoral rolls.”
The exercise also seeks to address discrepancies in urban areas, where polling booths often lack clearly defined geographical boundaries. As a result, voters from 10-12 localities may be attached to a single booth while residents of one locality may have to vote at eight to 10 different booths. Such arrangements have been identified as a factor contributing to lower voter turnout in urban areas.
The SEC said a unique house number will be assigned to each household and all voters linked to that number. Their names will be listed subsequently in the electoral roll of the ward and polling booth, he said.
“The exercise is intended to make the electoral roll accurate, transparent and well-organised ahead of the election,” Padhi said and added that the commission has urged political parties to appoint BLAs to help ensure public participation in the process.
He said 45,200 teams have been formed to conduct the survey across the state and each team will have two-three members. BLOs, anganwadi workers, Jal Sathis, Swachh Sathis and ASHAs will visit households to collect and verify voter-related information.
For inclusion or correction of names, Padhi said, Form 16 will be used in rural areas, Form III in urban areas and Form VII in municipal corporation areas. Objections seeking deletion of names can be filed through Form 17 in rural areas, Form IV in urban areas and Form VIII in municipal corporation areas.
The commission appealed to citizens to provide correct details of all eligible members of their households.