However, what happens if a voter walks into a booth but cast his votes more than once? What if the voter walks into a booth but refuses to cast his vote? What if a voter walks into a booth and is prevented from voting by officials for breaching rules and the sanctity of the secret ballot? Such cases, it is believed, are rare and comprise a miniscule percentage of votes. However, there does not appear to be any provision to record such cases and identify the voters involved.
An investigative report by The Reporters’ Collective published on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, however, reveals that in 19 of the seats analysed, the Register of Voters actually showed ‘Nil’ indicating that nobody voted. In some constituencies, on the contrary, the entire voting population was recorded as having voted in the Register. Clerical errors or not, the shoddy recordkeeping, says the report, raises questions on the conduct of elections and the quality of supervision.
In both Badkhal assembly constituency in Haryana and in the North Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency, for example, the Register of voters mentioned the number of registered voters (3.3 lakh and 18.11 lakh respectively) as having voted. Votes counted were 1.60 lakh in Badkhal and 10.33 lakh in Mumbai North. On the other hand, in two assembly constituencies, Kaithal in Haryana and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir won by the Congress and the National Conference respectively, the records suggest that more votes were counted than the votes cast.
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