In developing a civil registry, the first step is to assess the quality of information available from other sources. In some cases, existing data sources are quite suitable and efforts can focus on transferring the appropriate data to the election management authority.
Role of Local Government
Local governments are often responsible for maintaining the civil registry, starting with registering births. When even such basic information is not available, the government must organise an initiative to collect data for the civil registry. This is similar to a registration drive for the purpose of compiling an initial continuous voters list or a periodic voters list.
In contrast to a periodic list, with both a civil registry and a continuous list, the information gathered initially becomes the backbone of the list (see Logistical planning – Continuous Register), and subsequent work then verifies the accuracy of the data and regularly updates the list. The civil registry itself may be used for various purposes, such as maintaining basic population data, tracking the uptake and impact of government support services, keeping tax records, and identifying persons due to be conscripted into the military. The same basic data gathered for these purposes may be used for electoral purposes. Unlike a civil registry, a continuous list focuses solely on electoral data and is used for electoral purposes only.
Registry Listing Key to Participation in Civil Life
At any moment, a civil registry can provide a certifiably valid voters list for use in an election. Listing is normally mandatory for the civil registry, while it usually is voluntary for a continuous or periodic voters list. Because the civil registry has multiple uses, someone not listed in it cannot vote and also is effectively excluded from many aspects of civic life. According to Dr. Felipe Gonzalez Roura of the National Electoral Court of Argentina, exclusion from the civil registry entails a drastic loss of rights:
Aside from the purely civic motivations of exercising the right to vote and fulfilling the obligation of military service, anyone who fails to comply with this obligation does not have an updated identity document and suffers a kind of civic death. Such a person cannot work legally, vote, or carry out almost any transaction. He cannot leave the country, register in any institution of learning, or collect social benefits and so on. [1]
Thus, in both its scope and central role in public life, the civil registry has a significance far beyond that of the voters list. In Sweden, for example, each resident must be listed in the population register, which provides the data for compiling the voters list. The name of anyone entitled to vote appears in the voters list even if that person prefers not to be listed.
Status Versus Individual Responsibility
Planning for the civil registry should take into account its central role in public life. Because it is usually compulsory for citizens to be listed, the state should take the lead in supporting the development and maintenance of the registry. To do this, the state must have an operational infrastructure capable of gathering the necessary data and maintaining the registry. High-tech computer equipment is not an absolute must. In some countries with populations in the tens of millions, the government has successfully maintained a civil registry using simple file cards. However, computerisation makes it far easier to manage the volumes of data typically included in a civil registry.
While the state takes the lead in maintaining the civil registry, citizens are still often responsible for informing the state or relevant state departments of changes to personal information. In South Africa, for example it is mandatory to report births within 30 day period to the Department of Home Affairs, which is the authority that maintains the civil registry. This is another way in which the civil registry differs from other types of voter registration.
In addition, registration for a periodic or continuous list may be valid for a limited time. With a periodic list, all eligible voters must register for each election, whether or not they voted in previous electoral events. Even with a continuous list, many countries require validly registered voters to renew their voter identification card or re register after a certain time. With the civil registry, however, a citizen’s registration to vote never expires without express reason.
Citizen Identification Number
Whether viewed as a single list used for multiple purposes or as multiple databases shared for multiple purposes, the civil registry has one key feature: it depends on information sharing across government agencies or departments, or across functions within a single agency. To facilitate sharing, a tool is needed that can serve as a link between databases or administrative units. This tool is the citizen identification number.
Virtually all systems using the civil registry assign to each citizen a single, lifelong number, either when a birth is registered or on registration as an adult (usually between ages 16 and 21). The number is the glue that unites the various databases providing information to the registry. Unique identifying records can be stored centrally, all linked through the identification number. This eliminates the need to issue voter identification cards to citizens in the run-up to an election, yielding substantial cost savings.
The Election Management Authority in a Civil Registry System
In a system with a civil registry, there are various options for how the election management authority should operate. If democratic practice is well entrenched, the election management authority could be located within a government ministry, such as the tax office – although normally as a separate administrative unit. If democracy is less well rooted, it is clearly inappropriate to give the executive branch of government control over election administration. The key question is where the election management authority should be placed so that it can provide an independent check on the validity of the data used for voter registration. The answer varies from one context to another.
NOTES
[1] Dr. Felipe Gonzalez Roura, “The Electoral Register of Argentina,” in The Electoral Registers, paper presented to the Second Conference of the Association of Electoral Institutions of Central America and the Caribbean, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, November 23–26, 1987.
