A civil registry is a list of basic information on all citizens (e.g. name, gender, nationality, age, marital status and address). It is maintained by the state. Inclusion on the list is mandatory and citizens are required to report any change of information to the officials who maintain the list (typically the ministry of the interior). Normally, states that maintain a civil registry use it to generate a voters list. The result is that for any citizen who is eligible to vote, inclusion on the civil registry ensures inclusion on the electoral register.

A civil registry is almost always based on a national citizen identification number; a continuous list usually is not. Cultural issues seem to play a major role in the decision on whether to adopt a national citizen identification number. In societies that have decided in favour, the use of this identifier allows information about citizens to be managed coherently and comprehensively. Apparently use of the number correlates strongly with maintenance of a list of citizens. Other societies appear unalterably opposed to use of a national identifier, and they often place restrictions on the sharing of identification numbers, such as social security or social insurance numbers, among government bodies. Societies that decide against national citizen identification numbers also often choose not to set up civil registries.

The Danish Experience

Denmark’s Ministry of the Interior describes the Danish experience of linking the national civil registry with the voters list:

It is a prerequisite for voting that the prospective voter is registered in the electoral register (the voters’ list). The computerized electoral register is based on information already available in the national civil registration system (also administered by the Ministry of the Interior), to which the municipal authorities continuously convey basic, administratively relevant information about citizens, including the acquisition of voting rights, changes of address, and death. Thus, inclusion on the electoral register – and changes due to change of residence, etc. – takes place automatically and continuously. As a result, the register is permanently updated, and only people living abroad . . . have to take the initiative. They have to send a request to be on the register to the municipality where they were permanent residents before going abroad.

A printout of the permanently updated, computerized electoral register is made, with 18 days prior to an election as the reference day. Prospective voters who move to the country after this date cannot be included in the register before election day and are therefore not allowed to vote. Persons who move to another municipality less than 18 days before a general election remain on the electoral register of the initial municipality until after election day. Changes in the electoral register because of (1) emigration, (2) death, (3) issue (or withdrawal) of declarations of legal incompetence, and (4) people losing or obtaining Danish citizenship, which are reported to the local authorities less than 18 days before an election, are entered manually in the electoral register printout. [1]

Using a civil registry as is done in Denmark requires a great deal of effort. Officials must maintain the data needed for elections as well as the vital statistics data normally kept in a civil registry.

Typically, all citizens are required to inform the civil registry authorities of a change in their basic information within a specified time – perhaps 30 days from the date of the change. Updating the information in the civil registry will involve some delay, as it does in the case of the continuous register. The same update then is made to other lists based on the civil registry, including the voters list.

The Civil Registry and Voter Registration

In some countries or jurisdictions with a civil registry, such as Sweden, citizens need not do anything to be registered to vote. The local taxation office maintains up-to-date files on voter eligibility, and anyone listed on the civil registry is automatically registered to vote. In other countries, such as Senegal, citizens must apply for voter registration even though the state maintains a civil registry.

When a separate voters list is drawn from the civil registry, the task can be performed much closer to an election. Because the civil registry provides information such as date of birth, gender or name, that information need not be collected again for the voters list. This considerably cuts the time needed to perform data entry and compile the list.

Developing and maintaining a civil registry is a major administrative undertaking, and is likely to be expensive. The merit of the system is that once high-quality data are available for the population as a whole, the information can be used for a wide variety of purposes without significant financial cost to other agencies. For example, using the civil registry to develop a voters list simply involves adding voter eligibility criteria to the registry and then downloading the data to the election authority. That body’s role in the process is usually limited to scrutinizing the registration data for errors and omissions, and undertaking revision and production of the final list used on election day. With an up-to-date civil registry, the voters list can be created at little additional cost.

NOTES

[1] Folketing (Danish Parliament), “Parliamentary Elections and Election Administration in Denmark.”