Electoral rolls or voters' lists are official lists which determine who is eligible to vote and where. For every constituency/area, the electoral registration officer prepares a list of voters in which the names of potential voters of the constituency/area are serially arranged along with other particulars.  One needs to register on the current list of voters before one can vote.

PAC supplements the efforts of the Election Commission of Karnataka during the yearly revision of electoral rolls. The revision, conducted simultaneously across the country, aims to provide citizens with an opportunity to include their names on the voter’s list and to exercise their fundamental right to vote. It is also an occasion for citizens to delete the names of non-resident/deceased persons, object to inclusions and correct details on the list. Unfortunately, the lack of adequate publicity and of coordinated efforts by the Election Commission and the Bangalore City Corporation resulted in consistently poor turnout during revisions.

During the run-up to the Lok sabha elections in 1998, large-scale omission of names from the electoral rolls was observed. Against this background, PAC first assisted the authorities in creating wide publicity about the revision of electoral rolls and the need to verify one’s name on the rolls. Responding to the irregularities in voter rolls that surfaced during the 1998 Lok sabha polls, PAC conducted a massive awareness campaign urging people to verify and register their names in the voter's list during the nationwide summary revision of electoral rolls in 1999. The support of the SEC lent further credibility to the campaign. The media were extensively used, and existing networks were utilised to disseminate information. Once again, MAA Bozell provided creative inputs pro bono, which significantly impacted the campaign.

The campaign resulted in the process’s being made citizen-centric, by initiating citizen friendly measures such as designating polling booths as registration centres and declaring weekends as special registration days. PAC’s intervention resulted in greater thought and creativity in the entire process, with citizens the direct beneficiaries. A helpline was established for the first time to redress public grievances, and more than 800 calls were recorded within a month. An exit poll that was conducted to assess the impact of the campaign showed that 66 percent of people who had visited the booths reported their source of information as one of the media that PAC had used. It was estimated that in Bangalore, there was a six percent increase in the total number of registration of voters, compared to 2.5 to 3 percent during the previous revision of electoral rolls. Since then, PAC's awareness campaign has become a regular feature during the annual summary revision of the voter's list in Bangalore.

A large number of irregularities were detected in the run up to the Kanakapura lok sabha elections to be held in February 2002. To address this issue comprehensively, PAC appealed to the aggrieved voters in Bangalore to file written reports of such irregularities. In response to this appeal, PAC received reports of more than 350 names missing from the voters' list. Thereafter, PAC organised a “Voters’ Sabha” in March 2002, an interactive meeting that provided an opportunity for aggrieved citizens to articulate their woes to the concerned authorities. Members of civic groups across the city also attended the Sabha, and highlighted various discrepancies they had discovered on the electoral rolls, including the omission of several entire apartment blocks. The discussions also focused on how to improve the procedure for preparing and revising the electoral rolls. Suggestions included computerising the voters’ lists and making them available on CD-ROMS for interested institutions or individuals to purchase, making requisite forms available in ward offices, the availability of post offices and nationalised banks in every locality for easy access, and that ID cards, displaying the voter’s date of birth, be made compulsory. Based on the list of complaints on missing names, the election authorities directed the BMP to take appropriate action to include the names on the list. Copies of Form 6 or the Inclusion Form for inclusion of eligible voters on the voters’ list was also made available in the Assistant Revenue Officer’s (ARO) offices and Designated Photography Locations (DPLs), so that the voters with names missing on the list could easily access these forms to once again include their names.

The effect of PAC’s consistent efforts were noticed during the summary revision of 2003, when it partnered with NGOs and radio stations in six cities across the country to organise awareness campaigns through the dissemination of information leaflets translated into various local languages. Although citizens continued to encounter problems during registration, there was noticeable improvement in the efforts of the BMP to streamline the process. Over the phone, officials politely directed citizens to the Assistant Revenue Officer’s office or to the nearest polling booth, and some also patiently explained the procedure and necessary documents for enrolling on the voter's list. Moreover, unlike in Mumbai and K.R. Puram, where the election offices were badly organised and officials made no effort to create publicity about the summary revision effort, in Bangalore the BMP announced the effort in the major newspapers. In addition, each ARO office had a big banner in Kannada at its entrance announcing the revision.

The main purpose of the 2003 campaign was to utilise the medium of radio to effectively broadcast information to citizens on the summary revision. The radio promotions also announced a hotline number for callers with queries on the process of registration. PAC’s campaigns facilitate the redress of grievances through the establishment of telephone helplines. PAC identifies volunteers in various towns and cities in Karnataka, who are then supplied with information kits that contain details on the summary revisions, important dates, locations, etc., in order to help them effectively man the helplines. They are also provided adequate training on how to guide callers with the utmost courtesy, as most callers are already disillusioned and dissatisfied with the response by the government authorities.

Over the years, PAC staff have noticed a trend in calls received by the helpline. It has been observed that most callers are unaware of the summary revision, and are extremely grateful for having been provided the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. In the 2003 revision exercise, for example, feedback from callers revealed that though eager to enrol, citizens were completely unaware of the procedures involved, reflecting a lack of publicity. While the majority of the queries were related to new registration, many callers also enquired about the procedure for obtaining an Elector’s Photo ID Card (EPIC) and the kind of proof needed to procure it. Many callers had recently shifted from another town or city and wanted to enrol their names in their new locality. Callers also complained about the indifference of officials in charge of registration, forcing them to run around from one office to another without proper assistance. There was an enthusiastic response from students, especially those who recently turned 18.

PAC has also supported resident associations in their endeavours to examine discrepancies in the voters’ lists of their respective constituencies. In 2001, PAC launched the Campaign for Verification of the Voters’ List to inform the public about the process and to give them more information on how to participate. Armed with information kits provided by PAC, RWAs went about the task of conducting random verifications in their localities. Groups reported several discrepancies on the rolls, such as names of deceased persons, which were reported to the concerned authorities for corrective action. During the Gram Panchayat elections in February 2005, PAC resource persons trained civil society groups in ten districts on how to verify electoral rolls in their Panchayats, the first time this exercise had been carried out in the state’s rural areas. Groups were able to obtain copies of the rolls and conducted random verifications in select villages. The exercise brought to light a number of anomalies on the list and belied the presupposition that the rolls are in better order in villages than they are in cities. Findings were made known to the SEC, and PAC recommended that discrepancies in the voters’ lists in the Panchayats called for immediate attention.

The Election Commission of India initiated a campaign to issue photo ID cards to eligible voters in Karnataka during May 2002. In recognition of PAC’s past electoral interventions, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka invited the organisation for a meeting to discuss and participate in the EPIC voter awareness programme. PAC drafted press releases for the BMP, which were published in all leading dailies, thereby resulting in greater turnout at the Designated Photography Locations. The media publicity campaign was very effective in sensitising the press, and almost all the leading newspapers carried this information as a regular feature. Macro Infotech, the firm to which the BMP sub-contracted the distribution of ID cards, reported a greater than 40 percent increase in turnout as compared to the initial launch phase, and attributed the increase to information dissemination through the print media. Since then, PAC has supplemented the Election Commission’s efforts at publicising the EPIC programme in and around Bangalore. It has also conducted workshops for civil society organisations (CSOs) across the state, with the objectives of improving the efficacy of the programme and enhancing the participation of electors in the process of obtaining or correcting their photo identity cards.