The disadvantages of a continuous list of voters include the following:
- The need for technical sophistication, particularly with computing hardware and software, to
maintain and continually update information.
- Citizens must comply with requests to provide updated information. Their failure to do so
may result in disproportionately large numbers of revisions in the final stage of list preparation.
However, one response to this possibility is to allow access to other data for list maintenance. For
example, motor voter registration in the United States and taxation records in Canada allow passive
updates to occur with minimal or no activity on the part of the voter.
- It requires the electoral authority to be diligent in maintaining the accuracy of the list. Serious
problems have developed in countries when maintenance of the voter register has lagged or been
sloppy. The buildup of 'dead wood' on a continuous list is an electoral fraud or, at least, an
administrative scandal waiting to happen.
- To complete the updating of the list on an ongoing basis, there often is a need for considerable
cooperation among several branches of government. An appropriate administrative structure, and
administrative culture must be in place to respond to this requirement.
