SIR reports 16.38 lakh dead voters, four times Karnataka’s average annual deaths
An analysis of Karnataka's electoral rolls reveals that over 16.38 lakh voters are marked as 'dead,' a figure significantly higher than the state's average annual death rate. This discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of voter list maintenance and the integrity of past election data.
Why it matters
Discrepancies in electoral rolls can undermine public trust in democratic processes and highlight potential administrative failures in data management.
Of the over 1.08 crore voters identified till August 17, under the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead, and Other (ASDDO) categories in Karnataka, over 16.38 lakh have been marked as “dead” – the figure is nearly four times the average number of deaths recorded in the State in a year, according to an analysis of demographic estimates done for the period between 2002 and 2024.
While the comparison does not mean that 16.38 lakh people died in a single year, the scale of the figure is significant.
Between 2002 and 2024, Karnataka’s estimated total population deaths work out to around 98 lakh, or an average of about 4.26 lakh deaths a year, based on population estimates and the State’s annual crude death rates reported through the Sample Registration System (SRS). The highest annual estimate during this period was around 5.2 lakh in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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