A periodic list is a voters’ list established for a specific electoral process. It is developed for a one-time use and developed every new election. It is not an ongoing list, to be updated or otherwise adjusted between elections. It is produced in the period immediately preceding the election, normally within a relatively short time frame. There are two ways of establishing a periodic list:
- state-initiated voter registration
- self-initiated voter registration
In the first case the election management authority goes to the people as it is the case in Japan, Benin, Argentina, Cape Verde, Australia, Belgium, perhaps by conducting door-to-door registration as in Sierra Leone. This is an effective system for developing a current, accurate and complete voters’ list. It involves hiring and training large numbers of registration officials, who will work for a relatively short time. They must have procedures to follow should residents not be home on the registration officers first or subsequent visits. Planners should decide what information to provide registration officers at the start of their work: simply a list of addresses, or details about the occupants of each residence as noted in the voters’ list for the previous election.
In the second case, people go to the election management authority and registration is initiated by the citizen as practiced in Botswana, Burundi, Mexico, Ghana and Senegal. The election management authority establishes voter registration centres as in Namibia and Uganda, which it staffs and keeps open long enough so that all eligible voters have an opportunity to present themselves and register to vote. There should be enough centres, conveniently located to make registration easy for any citizen. Special provisions may be necessary to reach some voters: residents of remote areas, who would have to travel long distances to a registration centre; the aged and physically challenged; voters who live outside the country; homeless voters; refugees and IDPs. It may be a good idea to use the same facilities as voter registration centres and later as voting stations.
If election dates are not set by law, there is uncertainty about when the next election will take place and when the voters’ list must be developed. The result may be that the list is developed during the official election period. The period may therefore be lengthened to accommodate this effort. In this situation, advance planning is particularly important to ensure that enumeration can be completed rapidly.
Periodic Lists and Performance Criteria
Three criteria are used to evaluate the performance of a voters’ list: currency, accuracy and completeness.
Currency concerns the extent to which the information on a voters’ list is up to date on Election Day. In other words, have citizens who reached voting age by Election Day been included on the list? Have the names of those who died been deleted from the list? Does the list contain the latest residential address, particularly for anyone who moved since the last election? The closer a voters’ list is developed to Election Day, the more likely it is to have a high performance rate on currency. The earlier it is created, the more likely it is to be weak in terms of currency. To score well on currency, the voters’ list should be created relatively close to an election and it should be updated or revised still closer to Election Day.
Accuracy pertains to the extent to which the information listed for registered voters is correct and free from error. In the case of a periodic voters’ list, the information is gathered either in door-to-door registrations or at voter registration centres. This means it must be recorded by an official and transferred to a voter registration database used for the extraction and printing of a voters’ list, or else transferred directly onto a voters’ list. If the periodic list is being developed over a very short time, there is greater chance of random errors or errors of transcription committed when information is entered into the database and onto the list itself. The problem may be mitigated by the relatively large staff available to catch errors.
Completeness concerns the extent to which the voters’ list contains information on all eligible voters at the time of the election. For door-to-door registration, the list is likely to be more complete if:
- Registration officials make repeat visits to residences where no one was home previously;
- They leave information advising voters on how to initiate registration; and
- They are well trained and committed to their work.
For systems that use voter registration centres, completeness will be highest if:
- There are enough centres;
- Hours of operation are sufficiently generous, including evenings and weekends; and
- Registration opportunities are provided for difficult-to-register voters (e.g. out-of-country and mobile centres).
Cost Factor
A periodic list involves registering all voters within a relatively short time frame. The investment of time and money during that limited period is substantial. In the language of election administrators, the development of a periodic list has significant cost spikes.
