Did Bihar Record More Votes Than Voters? No, the Viral Claim Misreads ECI Data

ECI data shows that Bihar had 7.45 crore registered voters and around 5 crore actual votes cast.

The post alleges a vote scam in Bihar by claiming that the Election Commission recorded more votes than voters.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A widely circulated post on social media is using data from the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) press note for the Bihar Assembly elections to allege a 'vote scam' in the state.

• The post argues that the number of votes cast exceeded the total number of registered voters in Bihar, suggesting irregularities in the polling process.

• It states that the Election Commission showed 7.42 crore total voters and 7.45 crore votes cast while reporting a turnout of 66.91 percent, suggesting that Bihar must have 12 crore voters.

What's the claim?: The post claims that the Election Commission of India recorded more votes than voters in the Bihar Elections.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar posts can be found here and here. )

What's the truth?: The claim is false.

• The viral post misinterprets ECI's data.

• The figure of 7.45 crore refers to the total number of registered voters in Bihar, not the number of votes cast.

• The total number of voters who turned up to vote is 5,00,30,207, calculated using the constituency-wise ‘Total Votes Polled’ data available in the index cards on Election Commission Information Network (ECINET).

What we found: We looked up the press release by the Election Commission of India referenced in the post, dated 11 November 2025.

• We found that the figure of 7,45,26,858 shown in the document represents the total number of registered voters (electorate) in Bihar, not the number of votes cast.

Press Note released by the ECI dated 11 November 2025 shows the total electorate as 7,45,26,858 and the overall voter turnout as 66.91%.

(Source: Press Release ECI/Screenshot)

• To verify this further, we reviewed the phase-wise breakdown of the same document.

• The table clearly lists 7,45,26,858 under the 'Electorate' category in the 'Total' column, confirming that this number refers to registered voters, not votes polled.

The table below clearly shows that 7,45,26,858 refers to the total number of electors, not votes cast.

(Source: ECI/Screenshot)

To verify the difference of roughly three lakh electors between the ECI’s September figure of 7.42 crore and the November figure of 7.45 crore, we reviewed the SIR document released on 30 September.

ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (30 September 2025), showing the electorate as ~7.42 crore and point 6 from the document

(Source: SIR Bihar 2025/Screenshot)

• In point six, the SIR press note clearly mentions that eligible persons who have not yet registered can still apply for inclusion in the electoral roll up to ten days before the last date for filing nominations.

• This means the voter list continues to be updated even after the SIR is published.

• We also added up the total number of voters who turned up to vote as listed in the constituency-wise index cards, and found that 5,00,30,207 people had voted.

Conclusion: The viral post misreads the Election Commission’s data by treating the total electorate as votes cast and by comparing two different stages of the voter list. There is no evidence of a vote scam.

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