The accuracy of voters' lists used in voting stations in extremely important for the integrity of the voting process and needs to be ensured by The electoral management body. Rigorous checking that each voter' lits accurately reflects the relevant portion of the voters' register must be undertaken. Any errors found need to be corrected immediately, preferably by revising and reprinting the affected lists before the lists are distributed to voting stations
As voters' lists are likely to be the most used single time of material during voting hours, it is important that they are a quality product. Information in them needs to be clearly presented, and the material on which they are constructed needs to be durable.
Quantity Produced
Voters' list are a highly accountable item. They should be maintained under security while awaiting distribution to voting stations and on their return following close of voting. Normally they are only produced in the exact quantity needed for voting station use. This is generally one copy of each unique voters' lists. In systems where voters may have a choice of voting stations to attend within an electoral district or subdivision, multiple copies of the relevant lists will be required.
Voters' lists or full voters registers for electoral districts are normally also printed for public information purposes
Timing of Production
The production of voting station voters' lists is determined by the legal deadline for additions , deletions or amendments to be made to the voters' register. In setting the deadline, a balance has to be achieved between
- accuracy of the voters' list in ensuring that recently deceased voters can be removed and other allowable changes made;
- time required for printing and distribution of voters' lists to all voting stations
Location of production , whether centralised , regionalised or distributed to local areas depends on the processing structure of the voter registration system.
Certification
It is important that a legally designated electoral management body or other official certify that each voters' list used in a voting station is a true copy of the relevant portion of the voters' register. In some systems, the integrity of this process is protected by requiring this function to be undertaken by a member of the judiciary or a member or a revision court convened to review the register.
Design
The format of voters' lists are almost as numerous as the formats of ballot papers depending on the voter registration systems, voter identification , and post-voting day list processing methods used. Information required in the list is usually and properly defined in electoral legislation. Voters' list formats include:
- A handwritten or typed listing of electors eligible to vote at a voting station
- An index of the original voter registration cards for all voters eligible to vote at the relevant voting station
- Printed lists of voters eligible to vote at that voting station generated from computerised data
- Optical character readable lists
- Lists containing a photograph of each eligible voter for the voting station as well as textual information
Basic Design Requirements
The three major considerations in the design of voters' lists are:
1) the inclusion of all information required by election legislation
2) user-friendliness for voting officials
3) cost-effectiveness in printing
Some basic design specifications can serve as guidelines for the wide variety of potential designs for voters' lists (where these are printed volume)
- Each page should contain the election title and date, electoral district name , subdistrict or voting subdivision name, voting station identification code and/or name and consecutive page number
- Paper size should be at a minimum of A4 and the color white
- Paper weight should be at a minimum of 70-80 g
- Suitable binding such as lockable ring binders , make ruling through of names easier. Binding specifications must ensure that the voters' list opens flat, without splitting.
- The names of voters should be shown in strict alphabetical order, in most societies in order of family name.
- Typefaces uses should be of a point size that is easy to read quickly
- Single sided printing of the list would be preferable.
- Names should spaced sufficiently for them to be marked clearly when the voter is issued a ballot paper , without obscuring any adjacent names.
- Information shown should include the voter's full name as it appears on the voter register, ( family name generally first) full address of registration and serial number or identification number on the full voters register or a link number to this serial number.
Special voting facilities
Where special voting facilities are available, ( such as absentee , early or mail vote), methods of ensuring that voters cannot claim both a special vote and a normal vote at their voting station will be required.
Some alternatives in voting frameworks include
- marking voters who have cast a special vote on the relevant voting station voters' list before it is dispatched to the voting station
- constructing a special voter's list or lists for all voters applying for special votes and removing them from their normal voter's lists
- using enveloped ballots for special voting with voter details contained on the envelope being checked against the relevant voting station voters's list - to guard against impersonation and multiple voting- before the envelope is opened and the ballot acepted for counting.
