SIR Voter Search — Kerala Electoral Roll Lookup

A web application that allows users from your local village in Kerala to search for their voter details (SIR details / Electoral Roll details) by Name or Voter ID (EPIC Number).

Users can type names in English (Manglish) or Malayalam — the app uses fuzzy search to find matches even with slight spelling variations.

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📁 Project Structure

sir/
├── pdfs/                    # Place your Electoral Roll PDFs here
├── extract_voters.py        # Phase 1: PDF → JSON extraction script
├── requirements.txt         # Python dependencies
├── voters_data.json         # Extracted voter data (output from Phase 1)
├── index.html               # Web app — main HTML
├── style.css                # Web app — styles
├── app.js                   # Web app — search logic (Fuse.js)
└── README.md                # This file

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🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Install Python Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 2: Extract Data from PDFs (Phase 1)

Place your Kerala Electoral Roll PDF files in the pdfs/ folder, then run:

# Process a single PDF
python extract_voters.py ./pdfs/your_electoral_roll.pdf

# Process all PDFs in a folder
python extract_voters.py ./pdfs/

# Custom output file
python extract_voters.py ./pdfs/ --output my_data.json

This will create voters_data.json with all extracted voter records, including automatically generated English transliterations.

Note: If no PDFs are found or parsing yields no results, the script will create sample data for testing.

Step 3: Run the Web App (Phase 2)

Simply open index.html in your browser, or serve it with a local HTTP server:

# Option 1: Python HTTP server
python -m http.server 8080

# Option 2: Node.js (if installed)
npx serve .

# Option 3: VS Code Live Server extension
# Just right-click index.html → "Open with Live Server"

Then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

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🔍 Features

• Fuzzy Search: Search by Voter ID, English name, or Malayalam name
• Bilingual UI: Results show both Malayalam original and English transliteration
• Mobile Responsive: Works perfectly on phones — designed mobile-first
• Copy Voter ID: Click on the voter ID badge to copy it
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Press / to focus search, Escape to clear
• Instant Results: Client-side search — no server needed
• Beautiful Dark UI: Premium glassmorphism design

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⚙️ How It Works

Phase 1: Data Extraction (extract_voters.py)

1. OCR Processing: Since the PDFs are image-based, the script uses Tesseract OCR with Malayalam support to recognize text.
2. Card Layout Analysis: Parses the 3-column voter card layout used in Kerala Electoral Rolls.
3. Field Extraction: Uses regex and keyword matching to identify voter ID, names, relation, house number, age, and gender.
4. Rule-based Transliteration: Converts Malayalam names to English using a robust syllable-based engine and a dictionary of common Kerala names.
5. Deduplication: Removes duplicate records based on Voter ID.
6. Progressive Saving: Saves results after each PDF.

Phase 2: Web Application

1. Stats Dashboard: Displays total voters and wards processed.
2. Instant Search: Initializes Fuse.js with weighted keys.
3. Bilingual UI: Beautiful cards showing ML original and EN transliteration.
4. Sharing: Built-in share button for social media.

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🛠 Customization

Adjusting Fuzzy Search Sensitivity

In app.js, modify the Fuse.js configuration:

fuse = new Fuse(votersData, {
    threshold: 0.35,    // Lower = stricter, Higher = more fuzzy
    distance: 200,      // How far from perfect match to search
    minMatchCharLength: 2,
});

Adding More PDFs

Just add PDF files to the pdfs/ folder and re-run the extraction script. The new data will be merged.

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📋 Dependencies

System

• Tesseract OCR: Download UB-Mannheim Tesseract
• Malayalam Data: Download mal.traineddata from tessdata_best and place in tessdata folder.

Python (Phase 1)

• PyMuPDF (fitz) — PDF rendering
• pytesseract — Tesseract wrapper
• Pillow — Image processing

Web (Phase 2)

• Fuse.js v7.0 — Client-side fuzzy search (loaded via CDN)
• Inter — English font
• Noto Sans Malayalam — Malayalam font

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📝 License

Built for community use. Free to modify and distribute.