The Question

This question is posted by ACE on behalf of PN member Ahmed Ochama. 

Many studies suggest that on average, a national voters' roll gets retired or discarded after about a decade. What actions have EMBs taken, and how have those actions been managed with regard to the defunct voters' rolls?

Summary of Responses:

The International IDEA ICT Database provides information on the use of periodic registers and continually-updated registers by various countries.

In Mexico, INE (Instituto Nacional Electoral) maintains two lists. The voters’ list covers those who are eligible to vote, while the electoral registry covers those who have registered but whose information requires verification. To enable revision of the registry, INE has working relationships with several government bodies, including the Civil Registry, Foreign Ministry and Interior Ministry. Removal of names from the electoral registry is only possible when the relevant official documents correspond to the INE’s records. Difficulties have arisen in updating the electoral registry based on voter deaths, changes of address and migration abroad. The registry is updated on a continuous basis.

The electoral register in Ecuador is continuously updated and published for each election. This is done by the National Electoral Council using data supplied by the Civil Registry. The EMB has taken certain measures to ascertain whether individuals who did not vote in a preceding election have in fact died or migrated. Coordination between civil registration authorities and the EMB is important. One PN member argued that updates to the electoral register should be permanent, so as to safeguard the integrity of elections.     

External Resources:

• IDEA ICT Database: http://www.idea.int/elections/ict/field.cfm?id=485

Contributing Members:

• Deyanira Galindo
• Victor Hugo Ajila
• Peter Wolf

In Mexico, the voter's roll is updated and debugged every ten 10 years.

INE, has two lists: the electoral registry and the voter's list. The voter's list is the one used to the electoral process, it is the  list with all the voters who have registered and they posses the voter's ID card. electoral registry is the list for all citizen that have registered but the information may not be accurate.

To obtain the ID card in order to vote, each citizen must provide to INE with three official documents: birth certificate, an official ID (with picture, name, etc.), and proof of address. Citizen must attend to INE's office to apply for it. There it will be taken picture, and the 10 finger prints, electronic signature from each citizen. At this point, every citizen is in the electoral registry. The citizen must return 10 days later to get the ID card. At this point every citizen appears in the voter's list and is able to vote.

In order to debug the electoral registry, INE has agreements with different public institutions: Civil Registry, Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Army and Navy, the Interior Ministry, etc. the name can be removed from the electoral registry only by having the official documents and comparing and fully matching with all the documents in INE's archives.

The accuracy problems faced  for the electoral registry are due to some factors, which I will mention some examples:

Elector's death. The name of an elector it won't be removed if there is an inconsistency in the name from the birth certificate and the death certificate. Or if there is no notification from death.

Living abroad. If the elector has migrated to another country and there is no notification, his/her name won't be removed.

Voter's ID card. In order to vote, every citizen must go to fill in the application and few days later to get back to the office to obtain the ID card. If the citizen didn't pick it up, he/she won´t be able to vote but his name is still in the electoral registry but not in the voter's list.

Voter's address. In Mexico we must vote in the polling station near to our home address and if a citizen moves to a different district, city, or state, must obtain another ID card. If the citizen doesn't go to INE's offices to obtain the new ID card, his/her name will be in the electoral registry and in the voter's list from his/her previous address.

The difference between the voter's list and the electoral registry is really low, and the whole electoral registry data base is a good tool to check all the history movements from citizen (statistics) and even to avoid trying to get two or more ID cards.

If you want to check the statistics, here I am writing the link to have access to the information: http://www.ine.mx/archivos3/portal/historico/contenido/Estadisticas_Lista_Nominal_y_Padron_Electoral/

Besides, I will attach a presentation in Arabic which explains the electoral organization in Mexico and in page 57 is a picture from the voter's list. Hoping this information is useful.

Correction: The electoral registry in Mexico is updated continuously and permanently. The INE's offices are open daily and only in the election year (every 3 years) doesn't give the ID card few months prior to the elections(unless the Electoral Court gives an order for a citizen's right).

10 years is the expiration period for the ID card in order to keep updated the electoral registry, by considering citizen migration (domestic and international).

En Ecuador, el registro electoral se actualiza de manera permanente y se publica para cada elección; esta tarea la realiza el Consejo Nacional Electoral con base en la información que proporciona el Registro Civil. Aunque aún se presentan opiniones de que en el registro electoral aparecen personas fallecidas, éstas críticas han disminuido en los últimos años. Para las elecciones del 2013 y 2014 el organismo electoral impulsó la creación del registro electoral pasivo, es decir, identificar a las personas que no sufragan en las ultimas elecciones para luego estudiar si éstas están muertas, o ausentes del país por la migración.

En todo caso, lo importante es la coordinación de procesos que debe existir entre el organismo que lleva el registro civil de personas y el organismo electoral; esta coordinación permite aplicar medidas de depuración permanente del registro electoral.

Por tanto, la comclusión podría ser que la actualización del registro de votantes debe ser permanente porque esto es esencial para la credibilidad e integridad de una elección.

En Ecuador, la ley electoral contiene la siguiente disposición que refleja lo que he manifestado: " El registro electoral es el listado de personas mayores de dieciséis años, habilitadas para votar en cada elección, es elaborado por el Consejo Nacional Electoral con base en la información que obligatoriamente remitirá el Registro Civil o la entidad encargada de la administración del registro de las personas; se complementará con la inscripción que voluntariamente realicen las y los extranjeros residentes en el país, mayores de dieciséis años para poder ejercer su derecho al sufragio. El Consejo Nacional Electoral será el responsable de organizar y elaborar el registro electoral de los ecuatorianos domiciliados en el exterior, en coordinación con los organismos pertinentes". (Art. 78 del Código de la Democracia)

The International IDEA ICT Database has an overview of which countries use continuous and which countries use periodic voter registers (discarding old data when preparing a new register).

Data is available for 108 countries, of those:

• 7 discard old data on a periodic basis,
• 64 continuously update the voter registration data
• the remainder uses different systems, often deriving voter registration data from civil registers

http://www.idea.int/elections/ict/field.cfm?id=485