SIR, SSR And You: How India's Voter List Really Works

01 · 75 years

From 17 crore to 98 crore voters

Every bar is a Lok Sabha election. Hover or tap a bar. The line is India’s population, so you can see the voter list catching up with the country. Below it, the SIR in every state where it has run.

← Swipe the chart →

Registered electorsPopulation (Census; 2026 UN estimate)Voting age cut to 18

Electors and turnout: ECI Atlas 2024, Annexure I. Population: Census 1951–2011 (Economic Survey 2021-22, Table 8.7) and UN World Population Prospects 2024 for 2026. Percentages use the nearest census year. Turnout in 1951-52 and 1957 is ECI’s figure; some seats then elected two members.

The SIR, State By State

Change in the number of electors, from the roll before the SIR to the roll after it. Tap a state, or pick one from the list.

Electors before the SIR, in the SIR draft roll and in the final roll, from ECI and state CEO press notes and wire reports (PTI, AIR) as of 14 Oct 2026. Where a draft figure is the number of enumeration forms collected, or a total was only reported in rounded form, the state’s note says so. Assam had a separate Special Revision. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have not been scheduled. Map boundaries are indicative.

02 · Every year

The list is rebuilt every single year

It’s called the Special Summary Revision, or SSR. Click each part of the year to see what happens. These are the real dates from SSR 2025.

1 JanQualifying date

1 AprQualifying date

1 JulQualifying date

1 OctQualifying date

Turn 18 on any of these? You can join that quarter.Since 2022, there are four chances a year, and 17-year-olds can apply in advance.

Checked In Public, Checked Twice

Every step of the revision happens in front of the parties, and the finished roll must pass an audit before it can be published.

The parties are in the room

Before the draftThe state and district election officers brief every party on the schedule. Minutes and attendance are signed.

Draft dayEvery recognised party gets two free copies of the draft roll for each constituency: one printed with photos, one digital.

Every weekParties get the new lists of claims and objections (Forms 9 to 11B). No claim may be decided until seven clear days after a list reaches them.

Final rollTwo more free copies of the final roll. Anyone can inspect it, and it goes online without photos.

The roll gets a health check

65.99 → 66.76electors per 100 people, draft to final, before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls

943 → 948women electors per 1,000 men, draft to final

Dead 67.8 lakhShifted or absent 75.1 lakhDuplicates 22.1 lakh

1.66 crore names came off in that revision. The rules that gate them:

Every deletion, except a death, is checked by an officer of at least Deputy Tehsildar rank, and 10% get a field visit.
A booth losing more than 2% of its names, or one person objecting to more than five, and the registration officer checks each case personally.
The final roll cannot be published without the Election Commission’s written clearance, after a state-wide health report.

Sources: Registration of Electors Rules 1960, rules 11 and 22; ECI letter on the summary revision for 1 Jan 2024 (29 May 2023), paras 8, 15, 17, 24 and 28; PIB, 9 Feb 2024.

Most People Don’t Know This

The yearly revision is the most important thing about the voter list, and it is the least known. Surveys by state election offices and Lokniti-CSDS:

Self-reported answers from state-level surveys; no national survey on this is public. The Lokniti question asked about the Bihar SIR while it was under way.

03 · The deep clean

SSR fixes the list. SIR rebuilds it from scratch.

A Special Intensive Revision sends an officer to every home, and everyone fills a fresh form. It is rare: 2025-26 is the first since 2002-04.

SSR

Special Summary Revision

How oftenEvery year, plus continuous updates all year

Starting pointLast year’s list, corrected

Your jobNothing, unless you need to add, remove or fix something

Forms6, 7 and 8 as needed

TakesAbout 5 months, Aug to Jan

SIR

Special Intensive Revision

How oftenRare, ordered by the Election Commission under Section 21(3)

Starting pointA fresh enumeration form for every voter

Your jobReturn the form to the booth officer (BLO). If you were on the last SIR list, or a parent was, no documents needed

Not returned?You’re left off the draft, not deleted. File Form 6 to get back on

TakesAbout 3–4 months per state

What happened to Bihar’s 65 lakh

Names left off the Bihar draft roll on 1 August 2025, by the reason booth officers recorded. The Supreme Court made the Election Commission publish every name, booth by booth, with the reason.

Source: ECI figures via PTI (1 Aug 2025); Supreme Court order of 14 Aug 2025.

Intensive revisions since Independence

1952–561958–611965–661983–841987–881993 & 19952002–042025–26

From the ECI Manual on Electoral Rolls, chapter 1. Most were done in parts, a share of the country each year. The Chief Election Commissioner called 2025-26 the ninth such exercise.

04 · Before every vote

SIR Or No SIR, The List Is Revised Before Every Election

“Why revise the roll in an election year?” Because that is when it is always revised. Before each of these elections, a draft roll went out, claims and objections were heard, and a final roll was published, weeks before polling. Names can still be added until about ten days before nominations close.

← Swipe the chart →

Dates from ECI and PIB press notes, state CEO press releases and All India Radio. Lok Sabha 2024 shows the national schedule and the first phase of polling. The 2024 Assembly revisions in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir were extra rounds ordered in the election year itself, with 1 July 2024 as the qualifying date; ECI did the same for Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra in 2014.

The fair objection

A summary revision corrects the existing list. An SIR asks every voter to fill a fresh form, and some to show documents, in about three months. Critics object to that intensity and timing, not to revision itself. The rule that answers them is the same one: whatever the method, the roll has to be revised and frozen before the polls, and every claim made before the cutoff has to be decided.

05 · Three forms

Everything runs on three forms

Add, remove, fix. Click a form to open it, then compare what each one asks for. All three are free, and you can file them online, on the Voter Helpline app, with your booth officer, or at the registration office.

What Each Form Asks For

Every question on the three forms, as notified in 2022. Hover a form to trace it; tap a question to see what exactly it asks.

AskedOnly in some casesNot asked

Sources: Form 6, Form 7 and Form 8 (2022), and the ECI voter-portal guidelines. All three are free. Where an SIR is still on, Form 6 also carries a declaration asking for one listed document or a link to the last SIR roll; ECI dropped it on 30 Sep 2026 where the SIR is over.

Two More Routes, For Voters Away From Home

Forms 6, 7 and 8 cover almost everyone. Two groups who can’t be at their booth have their own route.

Service voters · Forms 2, 2A and 3

18 lakh

service electors at the 2019 Lok Sabha election

Who: the armed forces, state armed police serving outside their state, and central government staff posted abroad. A wife living with a service voter is enrolled on his declaration.
How they register: through their record office, not the BLO. They sit in a separate last part of the roll.
How they vote: by postal ballot sent electronically and returned by post, or, for the armed forces, through a proxy named on Form 13F.

Overseas Indians · Form 6A

1,19,374

overseas electors registered for 2024; about 2,958 voted

Who: Indian citizens living abroad for work or study who have not taken another citizenship.
How they register: Form 6A, online or by post, at the address in their Indian passport. No voter ID card is issued.
How they vote: only in person, at their own polling station, with the original passport. Postal voting for them has been proposed but not adopted, one reason so few vote.

Sources: Sections 20(8) and 20A, RP Act 1950; Conduct of Election Rules (ETPBS, 2016; Form 13F); PIB, 26 Dec 2024; 2024 overseas turnout from ECI data via DT Next; the 2019 service figure via the Tribune. The 2024 service-elector total was not published in a source we could verify.

06 · Your turn

Track Your Vote Like A Parcel.

Type your name, pick what happened to you, and follow your application the way you’d track an order. Every step and rule on the screen follows the actual process.

Your first name

What happened to you?

9:41●●● ⌁ ▮

✓

Vote Trackernow

✓

Vote Trackerby India, in Numbers

07 · Your booth

Every Name Lives In A Booth, And Someone Is Watching It

India votes in about 10.5 lakh polling stations. Each has its own slice of the roll, one government officer who keeps it, and an agent from every recognised party who can check it. Step through one average booth.

10,52,664polling stations at the 2024 Lok Sabha election

931electors per polling station, on average

614of them voted, on average

1,200the most any booth may have since 2025, down from 1,500

One dot is one elector in an average 2024 booth. The steps on polling day and at counting use the national averages. The flagged and restored names in the BLA step, and the party split in the counting step, are an illustration, not data from a real booth.

The officer

BLO · Booth Level Officer

Appointed byThe electoral registration officer, under Section 13B(2) of the RP Act 1950. The post dates to 2006

WhoA government or local body employee, usually from that very area: teachers, anganwadi workers, patwaris, panchayat secretaries

DoesVisits every household, hands out and collects forms, flags the dead, shifted and duplicate after due process, displays the draft roll, delivers voter slips

How manyOver 11 lakh, roughly one per booth

Paid₹12,000 a year since Aug 2025, up from ₹6,000; ₹6,000 more for an SIR

The watchdog

BLA · Booth Level Agent

Appointed byEach recognised national or state party, booth by booth (Forms BLA-1 and BLA-2)

WhoA registered voter of that same booth. Not a government employee

DoesGets the draft roll and the list of absent, shifted and dead names free, checks them against the neighbourhood, meets the BLO, and files claims and objections

LimitsUp to 10 forms a day (50 a day before an SIR draft), each with a signed declaration that they checked it personally. A false one can mean jail

How many7.64 lakh BLAs alongside 5.33 lakh BLOs in SIR phase 2; 1.61 lakh in Bihar’s SIR

The Weak Link Is Often The Party

In Bihar’s SIR, parties had 1.61 lakh agents in place. In the month of claims and objections, those agents filed 128. Voters filed 2,40,891 themselves. The booth system gives every party the list, the right to object and the right to add names. It only protects voters when the parties use it. In September 2026 the Delhi High Court held that agents are answerable only for what they personally verify.

08 · Heard it somewhere?

Things people say. What’s actually true.

Collected from WhatsApp forwards, social media and fact-checks. Tap a card to flip it: the facts, the rule they rest on, and the source.

09 · No home, no papers

What if you have nothing?

The rules expect that some people have no house, no bills and no certificates. Answer four questions and see your route onto the list.

10 · Before a name goes

Six locks before your name can be removed

Click each step. These come from the law, the Registration of Electors Rules, and the Supreme Court’s SIR judgment of 27 May 2026.

Where it can still go wrong

In an SIR, if your enumeration form doesn’t come back, you’re left off the draft. The system corrects only when you, or your booth officer, act on it.
The window closes. No one can be added, removed or corrected after the last date of nominations for an election, until it’s over.
Reporters have found groups that were hard to reach, such as pavement dwellers in Kolkata. The rules allow for them; reaching them depends on booth officers doing the night visits.