SIR: Migration, low awareness drive Karnataka’s high ASDDO numbers
Karnataka is experiencing high rates of electoral roll deletions, with nearly one in five voters categorized as Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead, or Others (ASDDO). Factors such as internal migration, political apathy, and limited awareness of revision processes are driving these record-high figures.
Why it matters
High rates of voter roll deletions can disenfranchise citizens and raise concerns about the integrity and accuracy of the democratic process in a major Indian state.
Political apathy, limited awareness of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and large-scale labour migration have together pushed Karnataka towards one of the country’s highest draft-stage electoral roll deletions. Nearly one in five voters in the State now falls under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) category.
Migration explains only part of the story. Bengaluru, which attracts lakhs of workers from across Karnataka, is reporting some of the State’s highest ASDDO numbers because a large number of voters have been marked as permanently shifted or untraceable. However, the districts from which people migrate, including Koppal, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and several other parts of north Karnataka, are also reporting some of the highest ASDDO figures.
It remains unclear where the lakhs of voters being marked as shifted are being accounted for in the electoral rolls.
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