The Election Commission of India (ECI)’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has brought its voter-matching software, ERONET, under scrutiny. Around 17.6 million voters across Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Delhi have received notices under the “logical discrepancy” category during the third phase of SIR.
What is ERONET?
ERONET, short for Electoral Roll Officers’ Network, processes enumeration forms and matches present voter records with entries in older electoral rolls. The software now operates within ECINET, the ECI’s unified technology platform launched in January 2026.
Why are voters being flagged?
A major issue involves differences between old and current voter records. The base rolls used for comparison were maintained in regional languages, including Telugu, Kannada and Marathi. Converting these records into English has resulted in spelling and transcription differences.
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As per a Hindustan Times report, in Hyderabad, Qamer Fatima was served a notice because her name appeared as “Qemar Fatima” in the older roll. She said, “All my current documents have the same spelling of my name as my voter ID. I don’t know how to prove that the person on the 2002 rolls is me.”
An official at the Telangana CEO office said, “The 2002 base roll was a mess. Names and surnames were inconsistent. When they were translated to English and matched with the current list, several errors came up.”
Age-related mismatches have also triggered notices. In Bengaluru, Joan Fathima was flagged over an alleged gap of less than 15 years between her and her father’s ages in 2002, despite her saying the actual gap was 27 years.
What is the controversy over ERONET?
This is not only an error in software, as Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Sandhu are quoted as being worried about access to the electoral roll database. “It is a gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database,” states Joshi, whereas Sandhu says that state officials “don’t have proper and complete access” to ERONET.
The problem also appeared in Goa, where EROs approved 97 voters but were unable to update the database due to the absence of rollback feature.
Is software capable of determining who qualifies to vote?
According to the Representation of the People Act and electoral law, Electoral Registration Officers are tasked with maintaining registers and determining applications and appeals. ERONET is a technology used for that purpose.
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Reportedly, an ECI official defended its use, saying, “It is impossible to carry out an exercise of this scale manually without technology. Checking duplication and mapping progeny manually will take years. We fix all problems with the software in real time.”
This is, however, a question about how ERONET detects problems, how corrections can be made, and who decides legally during SIR.