The advantages of the periodic list include the following:
- There is no need for a large election administrative apparatus to maintain an ongoing list.
- There is no need to track changes in voters' personal information (including their address
changes) in the period between elections.
- The voter registration period is a discrete event, with clearly identifiable beginning and end
points.
- The voter registration process can be a highly salient and focussed event, maximizing the
interest of voters and serving to heighten interest in the election.
- The registration drive provides for a limited time period for a voter education campaign.
- The periodic list can be developed without necessarily resorting to high-tech computer
hardware and software.
- The periodic list, because it does not require the maintenance of ongoing voter registration
information, need not be computer based. The rationale for computerizing the voter registration
process is less compelling for the periodic list than for the continuous list or the civil registry.
- Of the three performance measure of completeness, currency, and accuracy, the periodic list
performs particularly well on currency.
