Technology can be used to provide a wide variety of information to parties and candidates.
Information from voters register
Many countries require the election management body (EMB) to supply information from its voters register to registered parties, elected members of parliament and/or election candidates. Where there is a computerized voter’s register, this is a relatively straightforward process.
Data from voters’ registers can be supplied to parties, members and candidates in hardcopy form or electronic form. Since many voters’ registers can contain many names, these registers can be quite large, making hardcopy alternatives on paper or microfiche bulky and costly to produce. Electronic forms of voters’ registers are generally cheaper and easier to produce. Electronic forms could include copies written to floppy disk, CD-ROM or magnetic tape, or copies provided by email or downloadable from the Internet.
As voters’ registers usually contain personal data, they are often covered by privacy restrictions. EMBs will need to ensure that information from voters registers supplied to parties, members or candidates is supplied in accordance with relevant legislation and guidelines and is protected from unauthorized access or misuse.
The form in which electronic data is supplied to parties, members or candidates might depend on the specific need for the data, the amount of data supplied, and the users’ technological sophistication.
Data can be supplied in text, ASCI and Rich Text Format (rtf) format which can be read not only by all the widely used word processing software packages but also by other kinds of software programs as well. Very often, though, data is supplied in one of the proprietary word processing, spreadsheet or database file format that may or may not be read by the users’ software packages. If possible, it is desirable to offer the data in a range of formats to suit the needs of the different users.
In addition to supplying voter register data in a simple list format, it may also be desirable (or required by policy or legislation) to supply a software package where together with the data a program is included to work under one of the widely used operating systems that can be used by itself in a computer and dispensing the need for additional software. Such a package can include various database functions, including the ability to search, view and print data based on a variety of criteria.
General communications
Technology can also be used for general communication with political parties and candidates. Emails and faxes can be used to contact parties and candidates quickly and, if necessary, in bulk. Where party and candidate contact details are captured electronically, mail merge facilities in databases and word processing systems can be used to send generic or customized letters to parties and candidates.
