Except for some English-speaking countries like Canada, the United States and Australia, the majority of the permanent electoral registers are closely interrelated with other population, civil or municipal registers. This brings about a considerable cost saving compared to independent electoral register systems.
This interrelation can however be developed in two different directions:
In the more developed countries, civil and municipal registers emerged before the universalization of suffrage created a need for a voters' register. Therefore, in the greater majority of the Western European countries (among others, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and Finland) the voters' register consists simply of an adjustment of the data contained in the municipal register for electoral purposes whenever elections are held.
On the contrary, in the areas that gained access to development more recently, such as Central America and Africa, the process has been just the opposite. These civil and municipal registers have been created from the elaboration of the electoral register in the democratisation processes. This is the reason why the electoral organisations are so dependent on civil registers in some countries, like Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
In both cases it is evident that a public electoral register must exclusively contain such data that may be relevant to the holding of elections, which is much less than what is shown on civil or municipal registers.
