Common electoral roll
Also called: Single electoral roll · Topic: Electoral Reforms: Money, Criminalisation and Simultaneous Elections · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A common electoral roll means one voter list and one voter ID card (EPIC) for all elections: Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies such as panchayats and municipalities. Today, some State Election Commissions (SECs) prepare separate rolls for local body polls. Under the proposal, the Election Commission of India would prepare the single roll together with the SECs, through an amendment to Article 325. The High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections, chaired by Ram Nath Kovind, recommended it in its 2024 report. It matters because one roll cuts duplicate work and stops a voter from being on one list but missing from another.
Example
Suppose a voter's name is on the assembly roll but missing from the municipal roll. That voter cannot vote in the municipal election. With a common electoral roll, the same entry and the same EPIC would work for all three levels of elections.
Don't confuse with
- Aadhaar-voter ID linking: this connects voter entries with Aadhaar to find duplicate entries. A common roll merges the separate voter lists used for different levels of elections.
Related concepts
- One Nation One Election
- High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections
- Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill 2024