A continuous register or list is a list of all currently eligible voters, adjusted to take account of voter registration changes between electoral processes. The continuous list is maintained by electoral administrators unlike the civil registry, or register of citizens, maintained by other government authorities. The continuous list avoids the spike in activity involved in developing a periodic list; instead of being concentrated in the period immediately before an election, the work of developing the voters’ list is distributed throughout the electoral cycle. The continuous list also takes advantage of computers’ ability to store, maintain and distribute data; Computers records information from previous electoral processes for the use in present and future voter registration exercises. In order to update the information, the continuous list also draws on data gathered by other civil agencies, such as motor vehicle, driver’s registration bureaus, tax departments and housing authorities.
Update Methods
Regular updates to the list allows to add the names of people who have reached voting age, become citizens or otherwise become newly eligible to vote (e.g. through release from prison) and who have moved from one electoral district to another. Updates remove the names of people who were on the list but have died or ceased to meet eligibility requirements. Some election management authorities update the list annually. The disadvantage of this approach is that the list is already several months out of date when it is finalised and it becomes increasingly outdated over the following year. Given the very high mobility rates in many societies, up to 20 percent of voters could well change addresses within a year. The result would be a voters’ list with some significant problems of currency.
Another approach is to update voter information far more frequently. In some instances the election management authority updates the list daily as it receives information through channels such as "electronic registration" or gets notified directly from the voter. Updating may also take place monthly as the election management authority receives information from agencies with which it has data-sharing arrangements or during a special registration drive a few weeks before an election in order to allow the election management body to correct the list should there be a need.
Data-Sharing Agreements
A continuous list necessitates data-sharing agreements between the election management authority and other government bodies to which citizens report changes in their personal information that might affect their voter eligibility. For example, voters’ lists usually include information on each voter’s residential address. In countries in which elections are organised on the basis of separate constituencies or electoral districts, a voter is eligible to vote only in the district where he or she has permanent residence. This is why the election management authority needs change-of-address information to maintain the continuous list.
A person who has moved has probably reported the information to a civic agency – the driver’s licence bureau to update a licence, the tax department when completing a return or the post office to redirect mail. Election management authorities maintaining a continuous list seek access to the information provided by voters to other civic agencies. They then use that information to update voter registration information. These arrangements are in use in Argentina, Australia and the province of Quebec in Canada.
This involves a number of challenges, including the following:
- A country that does not assign a unique identification number to each citizen, may find it difficult to firmly identify an individual from the information provided to another agency. For example, more than one person of the same name (often parent and child) may live in the same residence. When one of them changes addresses, the identity of the person who has moved may be unclear.
- If the election management authority depends on information from other agencies, it needs to receive the information in a readily usable format. Different authorities, however, may have different types of computerised databases, and may not be prepared to change their systems. The election management authority must find a way to work with them all. To do that demands a higher level of technical support and competence.
Internal and External Benefits of the Continuous Register
With the work of developing a voters’ list spread across the entire electoral cycle, the election management authority can foster training and expertise among its staff. The proportion of employees in professional and ongoing positions will be higher than it would if a periodic list was used. This opens the opportunity to build enhanced voter education into the voter registration process.
For example, some countries that use a continuous list anticipate the need to register people newly eligible to vote by developing a provisional register of voters. If the voting age is 18, young people may be placed on the provisional list at age 16 or 17 as in the case of Argentina and Australia, and transferred to the general list on their 18th birthday or once they reach voting age. Registration thus takes place at a younger age, and the election management authority can work with the high school system to develop a voter education programme focusing on voter registration.
