📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka,
Politics
Over 1 Crore Karnataka Voters Listed in ASDDO Category, Explained
✍️ The Hindu
🗓 19 Aug 2026, 01:19 PM
👁 4
The Hindu reports that more than 10 million voters in Karnataka are recorded under the ASDDO status, prompting questions about the electoral roll’s accuracy.
The Election Commission of India’s latest voter database shows that over 1 crore (10 million) registered voters in Karnataka are marked as ASDDO, a special status that flags entries requiring further verification. This figure was highlighted in a recent explanatory piece by The Hindu, drawing attention to a sizable anomaly in the state’s electoral roll.
The newspaper’s analysis attributes the surge to a mix of large‑scale data migration, removal of duplicate records, and procedural gaps during the 2023 roll‑updating exercise. These processes, while intended to clean the list, appear to have inadvertently shifted many legitimate voters into the ASDDO bucket.
State election officials have acknowledged the issue and said a comprehensive review will be undertaken ahead of the upcoming state elections. A fresh verification drive is planned to correct the entries and ensure that eligible citizens are not disenfranchised.
Civil society groups and voter advocacy bodies have called for greater transparency and faster remediation, urging the commission to publish detailed guidelines on how the ASDDO status will be resolved before the next polling phase.
The newspaper’s analysis attributes the surge to a mix of large‑scale data migration, removal of duplicate records, and procedural gaps during the 2023 roll‑updating exercise. These processes, while intended to clean the list, appear to have inadvertently shifted many legitimate voters into the ASDDO bucket.
State election officials have acknowledged the issue and said a comprehensive review will be undertaken ahead of the upcoming state elections. A fresh verification drive is planned to correct the entries and ensure that eligible citizens are not disenfranchised.
Civil society groups and voter advocacy bodies have called for greater transparency and faster remediation, urging the commission to publish detailed guidelines on how the ASDDO status will be resolved before the next polling phase.