A civil registry is a list of basic information on all citizens (e.g. name, gender, nationality, age, marital status and address). It is maintained by the state. Inclusion on the list is mandatory and citizens are required to report any change of information to the officials who maintain the list (typically the ministry of the interior). Normally, states that maintain a civil registry use it to generate a voters’ list. The result is that for any citizen who is eligible to vote, inclusion on the civil registry ensures inclusion on the electoral register.
A civil registry is almost always based on a national citizen identification number; a continuous list usually is not. Cultural issues seem to play a major role in the decision on whether to adopt a national citizen identification number. In societies that have decided in favour, the use of this identifier allows information about citizens to be managed coherently and comprehensively. Apparently, use of the number correlates strongly with the maintenance of a list of citizens. Other societies appear unalterably opposed to the use of a national identifier and often place restrictions on the sharing of identification numbers, such as social security or social insurance numbers among government bodies. Societies that decide against national citizen identification numbers also often choose not to set up civil registries.
The Danish Experience
Denmark’s Ministry of the Interior describes the Danish experience of linking the national civil registry with the voters’ list in the following terms:
It is a prerequisite for voting that the prospective voter is registered in the electoral register (the voters’ list). The computerised electoral register is based on information already available in the national civil registration system (also administered by the Ministry of the Interior), to which the municipal authorities continuously convey basic, administratively relevant information about citizens, including the acquisition of voting rights, changes of address, and death. Thus, inclusion on the electoral register and changes related to a change of residence, etc. takes place automatically and continuously. As a result, the register is permanently updated, and only people living abroad . . . have to take the initiative. They have to send a request to be on the register of the municipality where they were permanent residents before going abroad.
A printout of the permanently updated, computerised electoral register is made with 18 days prior to an election as the reference day. Prospective voters who move to the country after this date cannot be included in the register before Election Day and are therefore not allowed to vote. People who move to another municipality less than 18 days before a general election remain on the electoral register of the initial municipality until after Election Day. Changes in the electoral register because of (1) emigration, (2) death, (3) issue (or withdrawal) of declarations of legal incompetence, and (4) people losing or obtaining Danish citizenship, which are reported to the local authorities less than 18 days before an election, are entered manually in the electoral register printout. [1]
Using a civil registry as in Denmark requires a great deal of effort. Officials must maintain the data needed for elections as well as the vital statistics data normally kept in a civil registry.
Typically, all citizens are required to inform the civil registry authorities of a change in their basic information within a specified time perhaps 30 days from the date of the change. Updating the information in the civil registry will involve some delay, as it does in the case of the continuous register. The same update is then made to other lists based on the civil registry, including the voters’ list.
The Civil Registry and Voter Registration
In some countries or jurisdictions with a civil registry, such as Sweden, citizens don't need to do anything to be registered to vote. The local taxation office maintains up-to-date files on voter eligibility, and anyone listed on the civil registry is automatically registered to vote. In other countries, such as Senegal, citizens must apply for voter registration even though the state maintains a civil registry.
When a separate voters’ list is drawn from the civil registry, the task can be performed much closer to an election. Because the civil registry provides information such as the date of birth, gender and/or name, that information doesn't need to be collected again for the voters’ list. This considerably cuts the time needed to perform data entry and compiling the list.
Developing and maintaining a civil registry is a major administrative undertaking and it is likely to be expensive. The merit of the system is that once high-quality data are available for the population as a whole, the information can be used for a wide variety of purposes without significant financial cost to other agencies. For example, using the civil registry in order to develop a voters’ list simply involves adding voter eligibility criteria to the registry and then downloading the data to the election management authority. That body’s role in the process is usually limited to scrutinising the registration data for errors and omissions, and undertaking revision and production of the final list used on Election Day. With an up-to-date civil registry, the voters’ list can be created with just a little additional cost.
NOTES
[1] Folketing (Danish Parliament), “Parliamentary Elections and Election Administration in Denmark.”
