By Express News Service BENGALURU: The State Election Commission has received 21,674 complaints in just nine days, from citizens requesting for corrections in their voter identity cards. The Election Commission of India has asked citizens to verify their voter identity card details and make the corrections themselves, after which the election officials will do the verification. Shambhu Bhat D, Joint Chief Electoral Office, Electoral Rolls, told TNIE that till September 9, as many as 21,674 people had filed for corrections in the electoral role. Of these, 2,315 are from Bengaluru Urban, 238 from Bengaluru Rural, 1,078 from Bengaluru North, 984 from Bengaluru South and 1,060 from Bengaluru Central. He said that though each request was yet to be verified, the maximum number of requests were for correction, were in name, date of birth, gender, voter ID number and change of address. The election officials clarified that the verification and correction is nothing to do with the upcoming bypolls but to update the voters’ list. This will help know the number of voters, help with the all India Census report and link the software of all states to one national base. “Last election it was found that names and details of some voters were repeated in two states. All such errors will be eliminated now by accurate data verification. However, the response has been poor so far. It is the first time where citizens update their data as per their records first and then the election staffers verify it. Officials will no longer go door-to-door and collect data. They will only come for verification,” another official added. Google assistanceTo ease the process of verification, enrolment and updating data, the election commission is making the best use of technology. An election official said people can make use of Google Assistant on their smartphones. This will take the user to the Election Commission website and help them locate the nearest centre or office to resolve their queries. It also guides them on how to make the corrections.

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