Defining Terms
The preliminary voters list for a continuous register is the list that is produced at the beginning of an election, or at the
beginning of a list review period that involves collecting revisions. The revised list is what is
produced after revision and includes a process of claims and objections. The final list is what is
produced after all voting day registration is complete.
Areas of Similarity with Periodic List
The production of the preliminary voters list is similar for the periodic list and for the continuous
list (see Production of Preliminary Voters List, Method of Production, and Promotion Strategies).
Differences with Periodic List
The most significant difference relates to the fact that for some periodic lists, the completion of
the list occurs in the election period, whereas for the continuous list, most of the activity of
developing the list occurs well before the start of the campaign. If the list was developed well and
performs well on the three criteria of completeness, currency, and accuracy, then the number of
changes to the preliminary list during the election period should be relatively modest. This is
referred to as managing the spikes. Not all spikes can be eliminated from voter registration
exercises; they are inevitable, unless of course one is using the civil registry system, in which the
spikes are eliminated almost completely.
