Dehradun: The Chief Electoral Officer’s office in Uttarakhand is working at full speed to prepare for the upcoming Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. The exercise aims to update and verify the state’s electoral rolls, ensuring accuracy and eliminating fake voters.

Officials are comparing the 2025 voter list with the 2003 voter list. A separate database is being created for people who migrated from other states and became voters after 2003. This will help confirm voter identities when the SIR begins.

A BLO app has been developed to match voter lists and identify discrepancies. Names of parents of new voters are also being checked to trace their earlier registration. This will reduce the need for multiple documents during the SIR, as verified voters will be directly included in the rolls.

However, tracing names from 2003 has become a challenge. The problem lies in delimitation exercises that changed constituency boundaries. After the state’s formation in 2000, the first delimitation in 2002 created 70 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats. A national-level delimitation in 2008 did not change the number of seats but erased 18 constituencies, replacing them with new names and boundaries.

This means voters searching under current constituencies like Dharampur, Raipur, Tharali, or Chaubattakhal will not find records in the 2003 list, as those seats did not exist then. “When a current voter searches for his or her constituency name, they won’t find a corresponding entry in the 2003 list because the nomenclature and geographical representation were entirely different back then,” explained an election commission official.

The newly released 2003 electoral data, available on the CEO website, is crucial for verifying whether a voter was registered before boundary changes. But for many residents, the absence of familiar constituency names has created confusion.

The exercise also includes creating a database of voters who migrated from outside Uttarakhand. Their names will be checked against voter lists of their original states to confirm identity. This will help identify fake voters and even those who may have entered the rolls through fraudulent means.

Assistant Chief Electoral Officer Mastudas said, “Voter lists are currently being matched since 2003. This will facilitate the preparation of voter lists after the SIR begins.”

Officials believe these pre-SIR preparations will strengthen the electoral process. Voters with no history in any state will be removed from the rolls, ensuring transparency. The effort is expected to create a robust database of genuine voters, reduce duplication, and build confidence in the state’s electoral system.