Ranchi: Jharkhand will host a two-day international conference this week on one of the most critical tasks in election management — ensuring that every eligible citizen is on the electoral roll while keeping voter lists clean, updated and credible.The conference, “Voter Registration and Voter Registers 2026,” will be held on Sept 2 and 3 at National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi. It will bring together election officials, legal experts, policymakers, academicians and researchers from India and abroad.The conference assumes significance because of Jharkhand’s role in an international research programme linked to International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar said Jharkhand was assigned the subject of “Voter Registration and Voter Registers” as part of research responsibilities given to election offices of states and Union Territories.“A pure, inclusive, updated and reliable voter roll is an important foundation of the democratic electoral system,” Kumar said at a news conference on Tuesday.The deliberations are expected to offer a comparative view of how democratic countries register voters, maintain electoral rolls and address the competing demands of accuracy, inclusion and accessibility.The conference will examine electoral-roll management not merely as an administrative exercise but through legal, social, technological and academic perspectives. Digitisation of voter records, voter inclusivity, democratic participation and emerging challenges in registration and roll management will be discussed.For election administrators, a central challenge is balancing error prevention with ensuring that genuine voters are not excluded. Kumar said the conference seeks to bring practical election-management experience and academic research onto a common platform, helping to understand present and future challenges and identify better working methods.The inaugural session will be held on Sept 2 from 10 am to 11.30 am. Election Commission of India Principal Secretary Arvind Anand is scheduled to attend, along with senior academics and election experts.Vice-chancellors and senior officials from Central University of Jharkhand, NUSRL and IIM Ranchi, and the principal of St Xavier’s College, Ranchi, will participate. These institutions are also the conference’s knowledge partners.A book titled “Voter Registration and Voter Registers” and the conference souvenir will be released during the inaugural session.
