India has removed an estimated 130 million names from its voter lists during a review that began in June last…

The ruling BJP says the removed entries belonged to people who had died, appeared twice, moved away or were absent. NPR also spoke to residents who said they were wrongly taken off. Kanchan, in Delhi, said her community was marked as having moved even though an election official had visited her there. Activists described people being asked for old family voting records or challenged over different spellings of their names.

That is the part that bothers me. Keeping a list accurate makes sense. Making someone fight to get back a right they already had is a much bigger deal than fixing a typo. A person who cannot afford to miss work is in a worse position to chase paperwork, even if the same rule technically applies to everyone.

The election commission says it will help people get back on the lists. I want that promise judged by whether they actually get back in time to vote.

The huge total alone doesn't prove every removal was wrong. The reported cases are already serious enough. An appeal that exists on paper but is too hard to use is not much help.