AI helps ECI detect duplicate voters during electoral roll revision in Telangana

Artificial Intelligence tools are helping Telangana officials detect duplicate and triplicate voter entries during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The ECI’s Photo Similar Entries and Demographic Similar Entries systems enable verification of suspicious records across constituencies and States.

Hyderabad: Technology is playing a crucial role in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in the State, flagging duplicate and triplicate votes across the constituencies in the State.

After implementing photo similar entries (PSE) and demographic similar entries (DSE) during SIR exercise in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) rolled out the same features in ongoing SIR exercise in the State.

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Using Artificial Intelligence, the PSE, which is embedded in the Electoral Roll Management system, is flagging voters who have identical or closely matching photographs for the BLOs and EROs to verify the electors.

In addition, the DSE search has been deployed to scan through the voters’ details such as the elector’s name, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s name, age and date of birth, and address.

The application is flagging issues if same or similar demographic entries appear in two or more electoral lists. This is enabling the authorities to verify the details with electors.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, one of the BLOs in the Kukatpally constituency said he found three votes of a person with the same name but with different spellings.

“I came across one voter, Shankar, whose name has different spellings in different polling booths. However, father’s name remained the same in all three votes. The application flagged it as a triplicate vote, and I have to call up the voter to ascertain which one vote has to be retained,” the BLO said.

Another BLO revealed that after he filled up details of a voter in the ERONET, the application flagged double votes, with one in Khairtabad constituency and another in Amberpet constituency.

“Using the PSE and DSE, the application is mapping voter details in the given database and flagging the double or multiple votes of a person. Since it’s a double vote, there is a need to verify with the voter before marking it as a double vote for removal,” the BLO said.

Not just intra-State, the application has been flagging individuals with multiple votes across the different States, aiding officers to issue notices for removal of votes.

According to the ECI, a staggering 6.44 crore votes had been removed from the final electoral roll of West Bengal after SIR 2025 and 2026. This could be made possible using the PSE and DSE applications in the ERONET.