When designing an automated voter registration system it is useful to define the purposes of the voter registration process. These would typically include:
- pre-identification of eligible voters (thereby removing the need to prove the identity of voters at the polling place during voting)
- pre-identification of eligibility for candidature (thereby removing the need to prove eligibility for candidature during the nomination period)
- pre-identification of eligibility of members of political parties (using voter registration as means of verifying the qualifications of a political party for registration)
- integrity control (using the voter registration process as a means of preventing multiple voting and impersonation)
- Production of identity documents (such as voter registration cards)
- planning for polling (using the voter register as a means of determining where polling places should be located and how many staff and how much material are needed at each polling place)
- producing lists of eligible voters for use in polling (using the voter register as proof of a person's right to vote)
- identifying names of people who have or have not voted in an election (using records generated during polling based on the voter register, particularly to identify instances of multiple voting and, in compulsory voting systems, instances of failure to vote)
- voter education (using the voter register as a resource to contact electors and to understand the demographics of the voting population)
- providing voter register data to political parties and candidates (as required by law for campaigning and transparency purposes)
- publicly publishing voter register lists (for transparency purposes)
- non-electoral purposes (such as jury lists and sharing data with other government agencies for law enforcement and protection of the public revenue purposes)
These various purposes for which voter registers can be used tend to dictate the form in which voter register data is stored and manipulated. In order to produce this wide range of voter register products, the data contained in voter registers needs to be electronically captured and stored in electronic form, usually in a database system.
A voter register database can be used by an election management body (EMB) to assist various aspects of the electoral process, such as election planning and redistricting.
Voter registration data can be aggregated to various geographic levels to assist with determining where polling places should be located and what resources (both staff and material) should be devoted to each polling place. It may be feasible for an EMB to link its voter registration data with its polling place management database to automatically calculate quantities of material and the number of staff needed. This can be done through assigning “catchment areas” to polling places and calculating the number of voters registered within each polling place's catchment area.
Voter registration data can also be aggregated to various geographic levels to assist with redrawing electoral boundaries or redistricting. Where a redistricting regime requires expected future voter numbers to be taken into account, a voter registration database can be used to plot voter mobility and to determine growth trends over time. However, while voter register data may show trends in growth or decline, care should be taken when using this data for redistricting purposes to include other factors, such as plans for future housing developments or plans to demolish housing.
