Roughly 20.1 million residents across Punjab will hold voting rights when the state's Assembly elections arrive in 2027, a contest now sitting within a four-year window. Voter rolls covering all 117 assembly constituencies were made available to the public on 12 October, once the Special Intensive Revision exercise had concluded.

Following a round of deletions that removed upwards of 20 lakh names from the draft electoral rolls released earlier this year, the revised registers carry a net gain of 7.97 lakh newly enrolled voters. Deletions from the electoral roll — driven by recorded deaths and the permanent relocation of registered voters out of the state — trimmed the total count by 6.3 per cent.

Four factors were cited by Anindita Mitra, Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer, as driving the 6.3 per cent contraction in the voter roll: recorded deaths, electors who had relocated permanently outside the state, names flagged as absent from registered addresses during the 2003 Special Intensive Revision survey, and entries identified as duplicates.

Punjab's electoral rolls stood at 2,14,61,043 registered voters as of 9 June, a figure comprising 1,11,76,866 men, 1,02,83,478 women, and 699 third-gender electors. The overall count reflects a net addition of up to 7,97,263 newly enrolled individuals, a group that draws from both first-time young voters and women joining the rolls for the first time.

Booth-level officers moved through their assigned areas between 25 June and 3 August, handing enumeration forms to registered electors and gathering the completed paperwork. Covering nearly 19.4 million registered voters, the Draft Electoral Roll entered circulation on 13 August.

Draft electoral roll copies were distributed to party representatives across the state to support their involvement throughout the Claims and Objections window, Mitra noted. Voter rolls, she added, had grown by a net figure of 3.64 per cent.

Broken down by registration category, the finalised electoral roll records a combined count of 2,01,00,727 voters — of whom 1,03,76,026 are registered as male, 97,24,195 as female, and 506 under the third gender category.

Advisories went out to 3.4 million voters, and upon review, the relevant authorities made corrections to the identified discrepancies. According to those familiar with the process, at the point the SIR got underway, roughly 12.80 lakh voters had no match against the 2003 electoral rolls, while a separate pool of approximately 22 lakh entries carried data inconsistencies.

Throughout the claims and objections window — running from 13 August to 12 September — residents were advised to check their entries in the Draft Electoral Roll and raise any corrections or challenges they saw fit, Mitra noted. Prospective applicants could submit their forms through four distinct routes: the ECINET Mobile App, the online portal, in-person visits to ERO offices, or with the assistance of BLOs handling offline submissions.

Field visits across Punjab were carried out by the CEO, 19 Roll Observers, and District Election Officers, who also undertook on-the-ground verification of the claims and objections that had been submitted. During the notice and disposal window — spanning 13 August to 8 October — electoral registration officers and their assistants held village-level hearings to address unmapped voters and those whose records contained discrepancies, with Mitra noting that document verification and booth-level officer reports formed the basis of each decision reached.

Copies of the Final Electoral Rolls are held at District Election Officer offices, at Electoral Registration Officer locations, and through individual Booth Level Officers. Voter rolls are accessible for download through two online portals — the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer's site at www.ceopunjab.gov.in and the Election Commission's citizen service platform at www.voters.eci.gov.in.

Printed and digital versions of the completed electoral rolls for all 117 Assembly Constituencies were distributed to delegates representing each recognised political party. Mitra also extended gratitude toward political party representatives for their role in the process, with particular mention going to the 89,395 Booth Level Agents deployed across the state, whose on-the-ground involvement contributed to the completion of the exercise.