A periodic list is a voters list established for a specific electoral event. It is developed for one-time use and is not an ongoing list, to be updated or otherwise adjusted between elections. It is produced in the period immediately preceding the election, normally within a relatively short time frame. There are two ways of establishing a periodic list:

• state-initiated voter registration
• self-initiated voter registration

In the first case the election authority goes to the people, perhaps by conducting door-to-door enumeration. This is an effective system for developing a current, accurate and complete voters list. It involves hiring and training large numbers of enumerators, who will work for a relatively short time. They must have procedures to follow should residents not be home on the enumerators’ first or subsequent visits. Planners should decide what information to provide enumerators at the start of their work: simply a list of addresses, or details about the occupants at each residence as noted in the voters list for the previous election.

In the second case, people go to the election authority and registration is initiated by the citizen. The election authority establishes voter registration centres, which it staffs and keeps open long enough so that all eligible voters have an opportunity to present themselves and register to vote. There should be enough centres, conveniently located to make registration easy for any citizen. Special provisions may be necessary to reach some voters: residents of remote areas, who would have to travel long distances to a registration centre; the aged and infirm; voters who live outside the country; and homeless voters. It may be a good idea to use the same facilities as voter registration centres and later as polling stations.

If election dates are not set by law, there is uncertainty about when the next election will take place and when the voters list must be developed. The result may be that the list is developed during the official election period, and the period may be lengthened to accommodate this effort. In this situation advance planning is particularly important to ensure that enumeration can be completed rapidly.

Periodic Lists and Performance Criteria

Three criteria are used to evaluate the performance of a voters list: currency, accuracy and completeness.

Currency concerns the extent to which the information on a voters list is up to date on election day. In other words, have citizens who reached voting age by election day been included on the list? Have those who died been deleted from the list? Does the list contain the latest residential address, particularly for anyone who moved since the last election? The closer a voters list is developed to election day, the more likely it is to have a high performance rate on currency. The earlier it is created, the more likely it is to be weak in terms of currency. To score well on currency, therefore, the voters list should be created relatively close to an election, and it should be updated or revised still closer to election day.

Accuracy concerns the extent to which the information listed for registered voters is correct and free from error. In the case of a periodic voters list, the information is gathered either in door-to-door enumerations or at voter registration centres. This means it must be recorded by an official and transferred to a voter registration database used for the extraction and printing of a voters list, or else transferred directly onto a voters list. If the periodic list is being developed over a very short time, there is greater chance of random errors or errors of transcription committed when information is entered into the database and onto the list itself. The problem may be mitigated by the relatively large staff available to catch errors.

Completeness concerns the extent to which the voters list contains information on all eligible voters at the time of the election. For enumeration systems, the list is likely to be more complete if:

• enumerators make repeat visits to residences where no one was home previously
• they leave information advising voters how to initiate registration
• they are well trained and committed to their work

For systems that use voter registration centres, completeness will be highest if:

• there are enough centres
• hours of operation are sufficiently generous, including evenings and weekends
• registration opportunities are provided for difficult-to-register voters (e.g. out-of-country and mobile centres).

Cost Factor

A periodic list involves registering all voters within a relatively short time frame. The investment of time and money during that limited period is substantial. With a continuous list, costs are spread out over a longer time. In the language of election administrators, the development of a periodic list has significant cost spikes.