1. Presentation to Election Commission
E-Rolls
(Uniformity, Standardization and Central Database)

2. Present Status
PDF format Electoral Rolls on the CEO websites-No search facility
No checking of duplicates.
In most cases bilingual electoral rolls not available.
There is no provision for making on-line applications
Citizens have no way to track application
No effective monitoring mechanism for tracking applications.
Photo mismatches as the photographs kept separately and matched only at the time of printing.
There is mismatch with EPIC as EPIC database is Separate
Data security is minimal – Most of the data is with vendors

3. Stages of the Process
Standardization and bringing about uniformity in the Electoral Rolls throughout the country
Having a Centralized Electoral Database with on-line database management system

4. Stages of Standardization and Uniformity
Standardization of Control tables (Master tables)
Standardization of Electoral Data (E_details table)

5. Standardization of Control Tables
Beta version of software is ready
This may be released to the CEOs and data of control tables imported to the Commission server
This will be a painstaking process with lot of effort –
Font conversion to Unicode
Transliteration to English
Proper Linking of Data
Manual Correction and editing
This process is likely to take at least 3 to 4 months with continuous work by all CEOs

6. Need for Font Conversion - Language : Hindi
Before Conversion
After Conversion

7. Risks of Font Conversion
Accuracy of software in less than 99% - Comparison with old manuscript and manual editing is necessary
Non-Unicode compliant old software for electoral roll maintenance and EPIC generation will stop working
Non-Unicode compliant Photo-roll printing software will stop working

8. Risk avoidance in font conversion
Keep Unicode compliant software ready before font conversion is done
Compare manuscript after font conversion with manuscript before font conversion manually and edit any errors

9. Risks in Transliteration
Transliteration has less than 99 % accuracy – English names have to be compared and confirmed with the Electors manually and editing needs to be done
Risk Mitigation by not printing the transliterated data of the roll unless manual comparison and confirmation with electors has been done
Disclaimer in the print of transliterated data with the offer to correct any wrong entries if brought to the notice of Election machinery

10. Some Hierarchies of Control Tables
State
Revenue
Division
Police Station
Post Office
District PC
Town
Sub-Division
Ward AC
Tahsil
Block
Kanungo Circle
Part
Panchayat
Patwari Circle
Section
Village

11. Linking of Control Tables

12. Risks of Linking
Wrong Linking – Comparing manuscripts properly and certification of correctness is a must
Administrative units are every changing so linking has to be dynamic

13. Work Flow of Standardization of Electoral Data
Font Conversion to Unicode
Transliteration to English
Merging of Photographs as binary data
Integration of Rolls
Printing of Working Copies
Verification of Data by-
BLOs
BLAs
Publication of Notice Board
Distribution of Pamphlets etc.

14. Work Flow of Standardization of Electoral Data……..
Editing the Roll to correct errors found during verification
Exporting data to the central database
Printing of the Draft Roll and its Publication
Process of Summary revision
Publication of Final Roll

15. Need for Photo-Merging
Unless Photos are merged in the database mismatches are always possible at the time of printing
Photos kept separately may get lost over time
Mismatch in Photo and EPIC
Photos become an integral part of Electoral data
Easy to print duplicate EPIC
No need of a new photo when data is transposed to another AC

16. Risks of Photo-merging
Photo mismatch
One Photo repeated may times over
Quality deterioration
Many Photos may not match – reduction in apparent Photo Coverage
Existing EPIC and Photo Roll printing software will not work
Large space needed to keep data

17. Risk Avoidance of Photo-merging
New EPIC and Photo-Roll printing software should be ready before photo- merging
Comparison of merged photographs with the face of the elector by a door-to-dood survey by BLO necessary

18. Ultimate Risk Mitigation for Standardization – Possibility of Rollback
Keep a copy of the original database in safe custody of CEO in original fonts and original format with a possibility of Roll back if things do not work out

19. Infrastructure for Central Database
Internet
Application for Citizens
National Level Mirrors Data of all States at the NIC Data Center at CGO Complex
National Level Disaster Recovery Mirror at the NIC Data Center at Hyderabad
Data of All Districts Mirrored at the State NIC Center
Also
Runs Application for ERMS
District NIC Center for Keeping the District Level Data

20. Workflow of making Central Database
Complete standardization first
Create Infrastructure
Train manpower
Export data to the Central Database
Simultaneously launch the on-line Electoral Roll Management Software
Regular monitoring
Maintenance

21. Risks of Central Database
Data safety – Crashing of Database, Data loss etc.
Data Security – Hacking, unauthorized editing etc.
Problems of access, band width, website maintenance etc.

22. Risk Mitigation for Central Database
Multiple Mirrors kept at the district, state and National level
Disaster recovery site at National level
Data to be kept at the NIC data center with full security
The website should be audited for security and reliability before opening for public
No back-end access to anybody except authorized DBA, and front end access only through authorized digital signatures

23. Costs
Cost of Data Migration – Costs have not been separately worked out. These will be out of budgets of CEOs for summary revision
Costs of central Database – NIC has given a rough estimate of –
Rs 113 Crores as non-recurring expenditure
Rs 4 Crores annual recurring expenditure

24. Other Important Issues
This will require a very big effort and involvement of AEROs/EROs/DEOs/CEOs and Commission staff full time for the next one year
New software development will be a big challenge – We will need different software for different states during the period when the work of standardization is going on. Most of these will be developed at the state level
Good technical support at the state level

25. Other Important Issues
A very large training input – A full training plan for all officers specially the AEROs and EROs
Coordination between election staff and NIC at all levels
Continuous monitoring and hand holding by Zonal sections of their respective states
Full Commitment of CEOs

26. What Will Go Wrong
Precautions

27. Errors will Come into the Roll
Errors due to –
Inaccuracies of font conversion
Inaccuracies of transliteration
Inaccuracies in linking of control tables
Inaccuracies of Photo-merging
Precautions –
Physical comparison of the old Roll Manuscript with the manuscript after conversion and correction of errors by manual editing

28. Current software will become non-usable
Due to –
Change of font
Change in able structure and data-types to bring about standardization
Photo-merging
This will put a stop to –
Updation of Rolls
Printing of Rolls
Making of EPIC
Precaution –
New software should be ready and deployed before font conversion and photo-merging

29. Decentralized databases not usable after centralization
Once centralization is done only centralized database should be used otherwise it will not remain current and the entire effort will go waste

30. Data safety Centralized database may crash Precaution –
There must be multiple mirrors with a disaster recovery system

31. Data Security Website and database may be hacked
There may be unauthorized aceess
Precaution –
Website must be security audited
Database must have an audit trail
Only access should be through a digital signature protected front end
We must have professionally managed database and website

32. Problems of Access
Band width at the filed level may be a problem so that access may become limited, and field officers may not be able to update
Precaution –
We should have an intra-net for our field officers with broad band

33. Finally – In a Project of this magnitude there will be unforeseen Problems requiring instant solution
Precaution – A team of highly qualified professionals needed at all time

34. Why Should we do it? Necessary for Safety and security of Data
National search
Ready access by citizens
On-line applications by citizens
Tracking of applications by citizens and monitoring by Commission
Detection and avoidance of duplicates
Inter AC transposition
Safety and security of Data
Makes us UID ready