Roundtable on Increasing Accuracy of Voter Lists Tbilisi, 22 November 2011 Marriott Courtyard Hotel
Accuracy of voter lists on election day is an important element in building and maintaining public confidence in the election process. To discuss issues that affect accuracy of voter lists and possible policy steps that could further increase their accuracy, the Central Election Commission of Georgia, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/ODIHR), and International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) convened a roundtable on 22 November in Tbilisi, Georgia. The roundtable involved more than 60 participants of Georgian political parties, non-governmental organizations, international donor and development agencies, local and international experts and the Georgian media.
Participants at the roundtable discussed a number of issues that concerned increasing accuracy of voter lists in Georgia, focusing on international standards and good practices as well as Georgian experiences in developing voter lists. The roundtable also provided a platform for discussion on linkages between population registration and voter registration which affect the accuracy of voter lists as well as the forthcoming process of verifying voter lists that will be conducted by the recently established Voters List Verification Commission.
Conclusions and recommendations1
1. In order to increase public confidence in the process of collecting and updating information in voter registration, the general public should be properly informed and educated on all stages of the voter registration process.
2. The implementation of the address system currently under development by the Civil Registry Agency represents a positive step towards providing increased accuracy in allocating voters to polling stations.
3. In order to boost public confidence in the voter registration process the authority in charge of voter registration should periodically conduct an internal audit of 1 These good practices and recommendations have no official status and are not based on consensus of OSCE participating States. Their inclusion in this report does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the OSCE/ODIHR. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, USAID or the United States Government. voter lists and provide regular statistical updates to the public on changes made into the voter register. The type of data provided should meet the public’s interest and, among others, could include: number of address changes in the register, number of new entries in the register, number of deceased voters taken off the voter lists, average number of voters registered at one address and highest number of voters registered at one address.
4. The forthcoming process of auditing and verification of voter lists represents a good opportunity for identifying and amending inaccurate information in the voter lists. However, any change and amendment to the voter lists as a result of the audit should be conducted in line with amendment procedures developed for that purpose and properly documented.
5. For the purpose of developing amendment procedures to voter lists as part of voter lists verification process, it is recommended to run a pilot project within a limited geographical area of Georgia to determine all possible types of errors that could be found in voter lists. As a follow up, proper procedures should be developed to address deficiencies and errors identified in the pilot process.
6. Any amendments to the voter lists, apart from being executed in accordance with existing written procedures, should be documented, traceable and information made available to the public for the purpose of increasing the transparency of the audit process. This should include detailed individualized information on when the change was done, for what reason, by whom and how it can be appealed.
7. Detailed information about inaccuracies in voter lists identified during the audit process, such as deceased persons on voter lists, or voters registered at a wrong address, should be communicated to the Civil Registry Agency. Ideally, corrections made during the audit process should be reflected in appropriate civil records.
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