Voter-roll revision reaches its first checkpoint as four states get draft rolls

The third phase of the Election Commission of India’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls reaches its first public milestone on 5 July, when draft rolls publish in Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur — the four states that went first in a phase that will re-verify 36.73 crore voters.

The draft roll is the document to check. From 5 July to 4 August, any voter in the four states can file a claim to be added, object to an entry, or correct their details. Electoral registration officers must decide those claims before the final rolls publish on 6 September. A voter who finds their name missing from the draft can get it restored inside that window; a voter who finds it missing from the final roll faces trouble on polling day.

Sixteen states, three union territories

The commission announced Phase III of the exercise on 14 May. It covers 16 states — Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand — and three union territories: Delhi, Chandigarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The commission has left out Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh for now, and says it will set their schedules after the second phase of the Census, with the regions’ weather in mind.

Over 3.94 lakh booth-level officers are going house to house, alongside 3.42 lakh booth-level agents appointed by political parties, according to the commission’s announcement reported by the official broadcaster. The first two phases covered 13 states and union territories and about 59 crore voters. The commission has planned the exercise in coordination with the house-listing round of the Census, which it says ensures optimal use of its field machinery.

In the four early states, enumerators completed their house-to-house rounds between 30 May and 28 June against a qualifying date of 1 July. Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu follows five days behind: its draft roll comes on 10 July and its final roll on 11 September.

Delhi is mid-count

Elsewhere in Phase III the count is still on. In Delhi, Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan submitted his own filled enumeration form on 4 July, with the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, Ashok Kumar, and the local registration officials in attendance at the Vice-President’s Enclave. Radhakrishnan urged eligible voters to take part, saying an accurate and updated electoral roll is essential to India’s democracy.

The commission describes the purpose of an intensive revision in three parts: every eligible citizen on the roll, no ineligible entry left on it, and full transparency in additions and deletions. Its helpline, 1950, operates through the revision.

The work now passes from the enumerators to the voters and their registration officers. Voters in Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur have to check the draft published on Sunday and file claims by 4 August; the officers have to decide those claims fairly before the rolls become final in September. Those two acts, more than the door-to-door count that preceded them, will determine whether the revision leaves the four states with rolls their voters can trust.

Sources: News on Air (Prasar Bharati), “ECI announces SIR Phase-III across 16 states and three UTs”, 14 May 2026; Vice-President’s Secretariat via PIB, Release ID 2281001, 4 July 2026; Open, ECI Phase-III schedule report, May 2026; Office of the CEO, Goa, SIR press note, 3 November 2025.