In the context of voter registration processes, convergence between civil and voters’
registers is the approach toward a common processing of population and voter
information in order to achieve cost effectiveness, completeness and accuracy in voters
registers. It involves replacing the costly electors enumeration process by abstracting from
a population register a sub-file to be used as a matrix for generating voters lists. When the
properties of the population registers enable such an abstraction, both the population
and voters registers are said to be “convergent”. Convergence in this instance is defined as
the interlinking of population registers and voters registers.
In order for the population register to be enabled to exchange information with the voters
lists format, completeness and integrity must be assessed. For obvious reasons, using a
population register to identify individuals eligible to vote is only as reliable as the civil
register itself. If the register is outdated or full of errors, many eligible voters will not be
identified, and names that should be removed from the voters list will remain.
In addition, computer errors are possible when names are moved from the population
register to the voters list. This problem is likely to be more pronounced when multiple
databases (health, driver licenses, taxation, passports etc.) maintained by different
government agencies are merged to create the voters list.
Lack of reliable data in the population register will compromise the reliability of the voter
registry. If the voter register after abstraction cannot be trusted, not only will there be a
lack of public confidence in the register, but the register may also cause more political
worries than if no data were available at all.
