A principle of effective election administration is that the location of a polling station should not provide an advantage or a disadvantage to any political party or group. The voter registration exercise can help in choosing fair and politically neutral locations for polling stations. Following are ways in which voter registration may influence polling location:

• Sometimes the voters list is used to determine the size and, to a certain extent, the boundaries of electoral districts. Often the number of voters per electoral district must fall within a specified range, although other factors may be taken into account, such as the representation of communities of interest, other geographic boundaries (e.g. state or provincial lines), or perhaps the assignment of a fixed minimum number of seats to a sub-national unit in the legislature. Instead of the voters list, sometimes electoral districts are based on data from a population census.
• Within electoral districts, the voters list may be used to identify the required number of polling stations and to help choose locations. The number of polling stations in an area will be a function of the number of eligible voters and the estimated time it takes to cast a ballot, allowing for the likelihood that voter traffic will be heavier at certain times of day.
• If registration is conducted through door-to-door enumeration, the enumerators may be able to provide information about possible locations for polling stations. Enumerators must walk through their assigned area within an electoral district. Since they often are drawn from the geographic community where they serve, they may be able to offer a fuller understanding of the community’s configuration, and of the ease or difficulty in accessing various parts of the community. Seeking enumerators’ advice on the location of polling stations is a way of putting to use the strategic information they gather in the course of their duties.