Odisha to continue with ballot papers for rural polls, EVMs for urban

Ballot papers continue to be used for voting in panchayat polls while voters will exercise their franchise through EVMs in urban local body polls slated next year, said State Election Commissioner (SEC) Madhusudan Padhi on Thursday.

“We have around 91,000 booths across the State for panchayat polls, and we will require four EVMs per booth. The number of EVMs required for panchayat polls will be around 3.36 lakh. This quantity of EVMs is not available, and the usage of EVMs also costs high,” said Mr. Padhi.

He said, “on the other hand, a large number of voters cast their votes in booths in urban centres and two EVMs are required for every booth. So, EVMs will be used in towns and cities.” The counting of votes will be done centrally.

Mr. Padhi said a house-to-house survey for the preparation of electoral rolls for the upcoming Panchayat and Municipal Elections–2027 will begin on October 26, 2026. The draft electoral rolls will be published on January 1, 2027, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 10. Voters will have 20 days to file claims and objections.

“The primary objective of the survey is to ensure that all voters belonging to a family can cast their votes at the same polling station and that voters residing in the same locality can vote at a common polling station,” said SEC.

He said that through this survey, the names of all voters belonging to a family will be listed sequentially in the electoral roll of the same ward and polling booth.

According to the commission, a unique house number will be assigned to every household, and all voters residing in that house will be linked to that number. All political parties have been requested to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to ensure that the survey is conducted in a people-oriented manner.

“The survey will be conducted with the objective of making the preparation of electoral rolls for the forthcoming Panchayat and Municipal Elections transparent, error-free and well-organised. For this purpose, the personnel deployed for the exercise will visit households from October 26 and collect the required information,” said Mr. Padhi.

The survey will also involve verification of information relating to the electoral rolls, with particular emphasis on ensuring that the names of all eligible voters are correctly included in the rolls, he said.