You cannot vote at whichever booth is nearest. Every entry on the electoral roll is tied to one specific polling station, and that is the only place your ballot can be cast.
It also changes more often than people assume: after boundary revisions, when a venue becomes unavailable, or when a station is split because it grew too large. The booth you used last time is not guaranteed to be the booth you use this time.
How to look it up
The Election Commission’s polling station locator is at electoralsearch.eci.gov.in/pollingstation.
You can also find it by searching for your name on the electoral roll; a successful result shows your assigned polling station along with your part and serial number.
What to write down
Three things, and the last two matter more than most people realise:
- The polling station name and address: usually a school or government building. Note the address, not just the name; several institutions in a district can share a name.
- Your part number, which section of the roll you are in. Booths often host more than one part, each at a different desk.
- Your serial number: your line in that part.
Arriving with your part and serial number turns a five-minute search through a printed roll into a few seconds. Screenshot the result.
Your Booth Level Officer
The lookup also gives you your BLO’s name and contact details. The BLO is the official responsible for the roll in your area: they handle verification visits, distribute voter information slips, and can check your entry directly.
If something looks wrong, the BLO is usually a faster route than any helpline.
Voter information slips are not identity documents
Before polling, BLOs distribute slips carrying your name, part and serial number, and polling station. They are genuinely useful for finding the right desk quickly.
But the slip is not proof of identity. You still need an accepted identity document to vote: see what documents are accepted at the polling booth. Turning up with only the slip is a wasted trip.
On polling day
- Check the station address again the day before. Late changes happen.
- Go early if you can: queues are worst in the middle of the day.
- Take your EPIC or another accepted identity document.
- If you need assistance, say so on arrival. Ramps, wheelchairs and priority entry are provided, and entries marked as PwD are flagged for it.
If you are turned away
If staff cannot find your name, ask them to check by part and serial number rather than by name: transliteration means name searches fail on entries that are present.
If it genuinely is not on the roll, nothing can be done at the booth. The presiding officer can only work from the published roll, and it is frozen before polling. That is why checking early matters.
The national voter helpline is 1950.
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