There are a handful of countries that have largely managed to address the problem of ensuring that all citizens have the identification documents they will need in order to vote; others have, by necessity, created an alternative avenue for registering and voting without documentation.  They have been able to do so by acknowledging the issue in the first place, putting in a great deal of concentrated work, and investing a significant amount of government resources.  Peru is leading the way to demonstrating how a country where numerous people are poor and may be in remote areas and have no documents can be reached and provided with the power of the vote.  Panama provides an example of a country in which the problem of lack of documentation is largely avoided.  Finally, there are countries in Africa that allow citizens to prove their identity through means other than physical documentation.

In Peru, in order to get the ID card (DNI) required to register and vote one must have a birth certificate. According to a publication of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), in recent years as many as 871,263 Peruvians of age had no identity documents, most of them in rural and poor communities.[i] The document noted that in many cases there were no government offices in some areas because the villages were so remote; residents would have to devote considerable time and resources to get to an office. In addition, the report found that poverty and lack of documentation were highly correlated. The MEF concluded that,

Based on these references, we can deduce that the population living in poverty or extreme poverty is not in a position to assume the costs that are really necessary when completing all the processes to have personal documents issued. In this sense, getting a birth certificate is free, but it is impossible for this population to afford the expenses involved to travel to the nearest health post and request a birth certificate, and for this reason birth certificates cannot be issued massively.

For this same reason, this part of the population does not always register births, and registering the children later on is impossible for them because it can cost between S/.5.00 and S..50.00 Nuevos Soles in some municipalities. The possibility of having a DNI later on entails a registration cost of S/.23.00 Nuevos Soles, a rather high cost for the aforementioned sectors since it represents 20% of their per capita monthly income.

Lack of economic means by a portion of the population leads to most of them not having a Birth Certificate, and without this document it is impossible to do the necessary formalities to have access to a DNI, hence increasing the undocumented population.[ii]

The MEF also cited the conflict of the 1980s and 1990s as another reason for the high number of undocumented in Peru, as the conflict resulted in many damaged civil registry offices and registry books.[iii]

Peru however has confronted these problems and devoted resources to tackling them effectively and continues to do so. According to the election management body’s (RENIEC) most recent strategic report,

As of December 31, 2012, RENIEC had identified a total of 26,444,052 Peruvians who have a DNI, which represents 88.8% of the country’s population. 19,250,609 of this total number of people with DNI are Peruvians of legal age who reside in Peru, which represents 99.7%, and 7,193,609 are minors, which represents 66.9% of the country’s population of minors. If you compare these figures with 2006 figures, you can confirm that by 2010 a total of 8,480,881 more Peruvians have been identified as having a DNI. Of this total, 1,841,887 are of legal age and 6,638,994 are minors, hence highlighting the growing importance of issuing identifications for minors in recent years in the country… To carry out these tasks, RENIEC has a nationwide coverage of 235 registry offices, agencies and service points, as well as 48 auxiliary registry offices - ORA located in MOH Hospitals and ESSALUD in most of the 25 regions of our country.[iv]

RENIEC has also attempted to address the issue of persons with disabilities without documentation, most recently by establishing a government working group and launching a campaign to provide identity cards to people in institutions.[v]

According to a report of the Inter-American Development Bank,

RENIEC successfully developed and implemented a national plan for the restitution of identity as a result of a final report generated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This commission was established in 2001 to investigate events that took place during the internal conflict in Peru, which spanned two decades. During this period, an estimated 70,000 people were killed or disappeared, and many were internally displaced. Moreover, local registration offices, along with the registration books, were burned completely or vandalized, which left a number of individuals without documentation and consequently extremely vulnerable…

RENIEC has undergone important institutional transformation since its creation, and it is now recognized as one of the most efficient, sustainable, and transparent civil registries in the region. Throughout the last five years, RENIEC has expanded the reach of its services to get closer to the denizens, not only by setting up more offices but by travelling to and providing services to the most remote areas of Peru and by offering services using the internet and other communication methods. As these actions have helped RENIEC reach the neediest and most marginalized populations, public confidence for the institution has grown over time.[vi]

Nonetheless, the problem of undocumented citizens does persist in Peru, and the government continues to work at it. Early in 2012 there were reports that RENIEC was carrying out an investigation in areas that continue to have high levels of undocumented persons to learn more about the causes and to develop strategies that take into account culture and geographic challenges to documentation. Many of the undocumented in Peru are in rural jungle areas. As a result, according to reports RENIEC was planning to provide services free of charge, travel to communities by river to service them, and incorporate members of the indigenous communities into the registration process. RENIEC is also working with UNICEF to continue to tackle the registration of births and delivery of ID cards. Since June 2011 the two entities have collaborated to provide registration and documentation services to 69 Amazonian communities. “In Ucayali, in the central Peruvian jungle, RENIEC recently reached the locality of Puerto Esperanza, in the province of Purus, to process and issue identity documents to the locals. RENIEC’s personnel arrived in the area, which can only be accessed by plane, to accompany members of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Congress of the Republic. 83 DNI applications and 60 identity documents were issued in that jurisdiction.”[vii]

In Panama, virtually everyone is entered into the civil registry at the time of birth and issued a birth certificate and an identity number.[viii] To a large degree this is because some 95 percent of the population is born in hospital[ix] where a registrar is on site. Upon turning eighteen, one must petition the Electoral Tribunal (TSE) for a national ID card (“cedula de identitdad”) and upon receiving it will be included on the voter registration list automatically. The national ID card, sometimes called a personal identity card, is required to vote.[x] Because photographs are included in the voter registry at each polling place, the hope is that in the future there may be no need for a voter to produce the physical card.[xi]

In order to acquire the ID card one must present his or her birth certificate or the identification card of one parent. If one has neither, one can provide other types of evidence, such as witnesses, to prove birth in Panama, a process referred to as “late registration.” The local official generally decides if the evidence is sufficient. However, for cases on the border with Colombia, where there is a history of non-Panamanians attempting to register, the materials are processed at the TSE headquarters in Panama.[xii]

With respect to those Panamanians who are undocumented, who were not registered at birth, the state has undertaken significant efforts to get them documentation. The state also does a great deal to publicize the voters’ list so that if someone is not included or his or her information has changed (e.g. address), s/he can make the appropriate changes to the list. The TSE also campaigns through use of the media and the Internet; in new housing developments, shopping centers, and transportation hubs; and through notices included in payroll checks and electricity, telephone, and water bills.[xiii] According to the president of the TSE, the Tribunal also campaigns in “traditional Panamanian handicraft fairs throughout the country and tours isolated places in the country with the voters list.”[xiv]

Lack of documents is pervasive in Africa and many countries simply do not have the resources or capacity at this time to ensure that all citizens get documentation in the way that Peru and Panama have strived to do.  Yet these governments realize it is important that members of all communities, especially in post-conflict situations, have access to the election system when one has been established. As a result, they have provided alternatives to documents for the purposes of voting.  Typically, this comes in the form of allowing for some kind of witness attestation as an alternative. 

For example, although elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo have failed on many levels, with respect to the law on voter identification procedures legislators and elections officials have recognized that many Congolese may not have possess any documentation.  Therefore the rules allow for a number of alternatives in order to facilitate enfranchisement. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) 2 Law No. 04/028—Identification and Enrolment of Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2004)—requires in-person voter registration for all citizens. The local registrar can vouch for the identity and nationality of the applicants himself or herself. Otherwise, the applicant must provide one of the following:

• A certificate of nationality or a document attesting that you have applied for a certificate of nationality;

• An identity document;

• A national passport;

• A national driving license;

• A national pension book;

• A pupil or student card; or

• A service card.

If the potential voter has none of these documents s/he can take an oath before the office of the registration center which must be witnessed by five people registered on the electoral roll for that registration center who have lived for at least five years in the district. Upon so doing, the applicant is to receive a voter card on the spot.[xv] The voter card is to be presented at the polls on election day.

A description of the Ugandan process by the International Criminal Court noted that, “Because the Electoral Commission is aware of the problems people have in obtaining proof of identity and does not wish to set the bar too high and discourage people from voting, they will register people who do not have any form of identification on the basis of a confirmation from others, such as neighbours, that they belong to a particular residential area.”[xvi]