The right of all adult citizens to participate in the affairs of their government is one of the cornerstones of democracy. Perhaps the most fundamental form of participation is voting in free and fair elections. For citizens to exercise their democratic right to vote, there must be a comprehensive and inclusive electoral register, also called a voters list; and this must be carefully maintained to ensure that each eligible citizen is registered to vote once and only once. A voters list makes it possible to separate two of the most important functions of the election authority: verifying voter eligibility and controlling the legitimacy of the balloting process. The list may also be used in voter education, and may be provided to political parties and candidates to aid them in their campaigns. While elections may proceed without it, a voters list offers advantages that readily justify its use.

By confirming that voters have met all eligibility requirements, the voters list helps confer legitimacy on the electoral process. Conversely, the legitimacy of the process will immediately be called into question if there are problems with voter registration, and particularly with the integrity of the voters list. Voter registration therefore is one of the most important tasks of election administration.

High Cost of Voter Registration

While voter registration is central to election administration, it is expensive. The task of registering voters and producing voters lists often accounts for more than 50 percent of the overall cost of administering elections. Various factors affect these costs, including the type of system used to register voters, the administrative capacity of the election authority, and the country’s social, economic and demographic characteristics.

Political Equality and Inclusiveness

Electoral registers support democratic principles by fostering political equality for all citizens and actively promoting the inclusion of eligible voters in the election process. Differences arise over how much effort election authorities should make to register voters from groups that historically have lower-than-average levels of registration and voter turnout – for example, women, members of visible and ethnic minorities, the poor, and youth. Some countries try to develop focused and targeted registration campaigns to increase the participation of these groups. Other countries take a more passive approach: officials make it equally possible for all individuals to register and vote, but do not seek to increase the registration of any particular group.

Despite these differences, there is consensus that for a system to be considered democratic and representative, it must provide equal opportunity to participate through an inclusive voter registration process.

Legal and Administrative Exclusion

Voters may be excluded from a voters list through either legal or administrative means. In the representative democracies that emerged in Western countries during the 18th and 19th centuries, people’s eligibility to register and vote was determined according to criteria such as property ownership, wealth, literacy, race, gender and “moral fitness.” Anyone not meeting the criteria was excluded. These legal exclusions were gradually removed and today most are no longer viewed as legitimate. However, many countries still legally exclude people on the basis of age (normally voters must be at least 18 years old, although the age requirement is sometimes higher), citizenship, residence, conviction of a criminal offence and mental incompetence. The exclusions are usually written into a country’s constitution or electoral law by political leaders, rather than adopted by administrative officials.

Administrative exclusion involves leaving off the voters list people who are ostensibly eligible to vote. They may be excluded simply by personal choice or habit; for example, potential voters may not wish to register because they have little or no interest in politics or the election. A voter may be incorrectly registered, or not registered at all, because of a change of address or a change of name. Exclusion may also be the result of shortcomings of the voter registration system, such as insufficient efforts to publicize the deadline for completing the registration process. A proper registration system seeks to prevent or at least minimize the exclusion of eligible voters. The priority should be to register all eligible voters. In practice this cannot be fully achieved, but it should provide the impetus for setting very clear performance criteria by which to measure success in approaching universal registration.

Complexity of Voter Registration

In making decisions about voter registration, electoral administrators must take into account conditions in their country, state or region. Among the questions that they face:

• Should a new voters list be created for each election or is it better to maintain an ongoing list?
• How do eligible voters identify themselves as such at the polling station? Do they use a voter identification card or some other means?
• If a voter identification card is used, what information must be on the card?
• Should registration be compulsory or voluntary?
• If registration is voluntary, should it be at the initiative of the citizen or the state?
• How should local conditions (e.g. literacy rates, urbanization, population mobility, relative affluence, history with democracy) affect the choice of voter registration system?
• What role does computerization play in the voter registration process? What aspects of the process are best handled by computer?

The answers to these and similar questions will help determine the kind of voter registration system best suited to a particular political context.

Three Options for Voter Registration

Democracy in general, and voter registration in particular, may take many forms. In deciding how to give substance to the principles of electoral democracy, it is important to choose a system that is:

• most responsive to local conditions
• realistic and affordable given the financial and administrative environment in which it must be developed and sustained

In the case of voter registration, there are three options:

• a periodic list
• a continuous register or list
• a civil registry

The election authority must choose one of these, or a combination, as the basis on which to design a voter registration system.

Periodic List

A periodic register of voters, or periodic list, is established for a specific electoral event, and electoral administrators do not intend to maintain or update the list for future use. Normally the list is drawn up immediately before the election, although this need not be the case. This system is relatively expensive and time-consuming since it requires direct contact with all eligible voters before the election. It may be particularly useful where infrastructure is lacking to maintain a continuous list, where population mobility is high or where there is opposition to the maintenance of lists of citizens by the government. The periodic list may also be preferred by quasi-governmental agencies, such as electoral management bodies or commissions.

Continuous List

A continuous list of voters is maintained and regularly updated by the electoral administration. This system depends on an appropriate infrastructure to maintain the list. Maintenance typically involves adding the names and other relevant information of people who satisfy eligibility requirements, and deleting the names of those who no longer meet the requirements (e.g. through death or change of residence). Since the continuous list is updated on a regular basis there is no need for a final registration drive immediately before an election, although a period is often designated for revising the list during the election campaign. The continuous list may be maintained either locally or nationally.

To facilitate list updates, many election authorities form data-sharing partnerships with other government bodies. For example, when citizens change their place of residence, they may inform the tax bureau, the post office, the housing authority or the health system. In many countries with a continuous register, partnerships allow the election authority to receive regular updates of changes to these bodies’ files. This makes it possible to update the electoral register without any direct contact between the voter and the election authority. In some cases, on learning about a change of address, the election authority may send the voter a new voter registration card with a request to update and confirm the information that appears on it.

Civil Registry

A third option for registering voters is the civil registry. This may contain a variety of information on all citizens, such as name, address, citizenship, age and identification number. In certain countries, particularly in Europe and Latin America, the voters list is produced from information contained in the national civil registry. In countries with a civil registry, a major question is whether the body responsible for it (often the interior ministry) should be responsible for the voters list. Some countries give the same institution responsibility for both registries; others choose two agencies, each with responsibility for one of the lists.

If a civil registry is in place, producing a voters list is relatively efficient and cost-effective. This is because the major costs are borne in the first place by the civil registry. And while it is relatively expensive to maintain a civil registry, the information recorded may be used for multiple purposes, reducing the government’s overall data management costs.

The major drawback of this system is its major strength. Even though the high cost is justified, data sharing among government institutions may give rise to controversy. Concerns may be expressed about the loss, or potential loss, of privacy. If the concerns are widespread, a civil registry may be simply unacceptable despite its usefulness.