Ranchi: The office of the chief electoral officer K Ravi Kumar on Friday clarified through a statement that all eligible voters who submit their signed Enumeration Forms (EFs) will be included in the draft electoral roll to be published on Aug 5.On Thursday, a conglomeration of civil society groups sent a memorandum to the CEO demanding to make public the lists of “unmapped” voters and those included in the draft ‘absentee, shifted and dead’ category under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The groups also claimed that mapping of nearly 47 lakh voters in Jharkhand was not completed.“Every elector in the 2026 electoral roll has been provided two copies of personalised, partially pre-filled enumeration forms. Once a voter submits the signed form to the booth-level officer (BLO) and obtains a receipt, his or her name will be included in the draft roll,” the statement from CEO’s office said.Authorities stressed that inclusion in the draft roll safeguards the voter from arbitrary deletion. “Any name appearing in the draft electoral roll cannot be deleted without a notice and due hearing by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO),” it added.Officials further clarified that voters whose self or parental mapping with previous SIR records is completed without anomalies will be granted a presumption of citizenship and need not submit additional documents. Even voters whose mapping remains incomplete or shows anomalies will still be included in the draft roll after submitting signed forms, with document verification, if required, taking place during the notice and verification period.“Only five categories of electors will not be included in the draft roll — duplicate or multiple entries, deceased voters, permanently shifted voters, absent/untraceable electors, and those refusing to sign enumeration forms (foreigners). Their names will be placed on the ASDD list, which will be published along with the draft roll,” it said.Election authorities said the unmapped voters’ list has been publicly available since May 23 at all 29,571 polling stations, while soft copies were shared with recognised political parties on May 29 and uploaded in searchable format on the CEO website. “Claims that all unmapped voters would be deleted are false,” it added.
