Election Commission of India Issues Orders Regarding Identification of Electors

Chandigarh, 1st March 2019:  It is for the information of general public that per the direction of the Election Commission of India, all the electors in all constituencies who have been issued EPIC have to produce the Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) for their identification in the polling station before casting their votes.

The electors who are not able to produce the EPIC shall produce one of the alternative photo identity documents for establishing their identity

1.     Passport

2.     Driving License

3.     Service Identity Card with photograph issue to employees by Central/State Government/ PSUs/Public Limited Companies

4.     Passbooks with photographs issued by Bank/Post Office

5.     PAN Card

6.     Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR

7.     MNREGA Job Card

8.     Health Insurance Job Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour

9.     Pension document with Photograph

10.   Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs

11.   Aadhar Card

It has also been ordered that in the case of EPIC, minor discrepancies in the entries therein should be ignored provided the identity of the elector can be established by EPIC. If an elector produces an EPIC which has been issued by the Electoral Registration Officer of another Assembly Constituency, such card shall also be accepted for identification provided the name of that elector finds place in the electoral roll pertaining to the Polling station where the elector has turned up for voting. If it is not possible to establish the identity of the elector on account of mismatch of photograph etc, the elector shall have to produce one of the alternative photo documents (as mentioned above)

On earlier occasions, the Commission had allowed Photo Voter Slip as a document for identification. However, there have been representations against the stand alone identification document on the grounds of misuse .The design of Photo Voter Slip does not incorporate any security feature. In fact, photo voter slip was started as an alternative document as the coverage as the coverage of EPIC was not complete. In view of the same, the directions have been passed that the Photo Voter Slip shall henceforth not be accepted as a stand-alone identification document for voting. However, Photo Voter Slip will continue to be prepared and issued to electors as part of the awareness building exercise.

The overseas electors shall have to produce the produce their original passport only for identification.