Voter registration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_registration 

 

In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote.

The rules governing registration vary between jurisdictions. In many jurisdictions, registration is an automatic process performed by extracting the names of voting age residents of a precinct from a general-use population registry ahead of election day. In contrast, in others, registration may require an application being made by an eligible voter and registered persons to re-register or update registration details when they change residence or other relevant information changes.

Some jurisdictions have "election day registration" and others do not require registration, or may require the production of evidence of entitlement to vote at the time of voting. In jurisdictions where registration is not mandatory, an effort may be made to encourage persons otherwise eligible to vote to register, in what is called as a voter registration drive. In countries where resident registration is compulsory, voter registration usually does not exist, since voter eligibility can be determined from the residence register.

Even in countries where registration is the individual's responsibility, many reformers, seeking to maximize voter turnout, argue for a wider availability of the required forms, or more ease of process by having more places where they can register. The United States, for example, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ("Motor Voter Law") and similar laws require states to offer voter registration at motor vehicle departments (driver's license offices) as well as disability centers, public schools, and public libraries, in order to offer more access to the system. State authorities are also required to accept mail-in voter registrations. Many jurisdictions also offer online registrations.

Registration of voters by country

Systems of voter registration vary widely from country to country, and sometimes among lower jurisdictions, such as states or provinces. In some nations, voters are automatically added to the rolls when they reach legal voting age. In others, potential voters are required to apply to be added to the rolls.

Australia

Voter registration is compulsory in Australia for all citizens 18 years of age or above. The Australian Electoral Commission maintains Australia's federal electoral roll. Each state also has its own electoral commission or office, but voters need to register only with the AEC, which shares the registration details with the relevant state electoral commission.

Canada

In Canada, the National Register of Electors is a continuously updated permanent database of eligible electors for federal elections in Canada maintained by Elections Canada. In the 1990s Canada adopted an opt-in process, by which voters mark their consent to be added the national register on their annual income tax returns.

The Register is also updated using the following sources:

• provincial and territorial motor vehicle registrars
• Canada Revenue Agency
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada
• provincial and territorial vital statistics registrars, and provincial electoral agencies with permanent lists of electors (e.g. British Columbia and Quebec)
• information supplied by electors when they register to vote or revise their information during and between federal electoral events
• proven electoral lists from other Canadian jurisdictions

Same-day registration is also permitted.^[11][12]

Chile

Since 2012, voter registration in Chile is automatic. It is based on a database by the Civil Registry Office of Chileans and resident foreigners in possession of an identity card number, which is unique for each individual when issued and is never re-used after a person's death. All Chileans and eligible foreigners are added automatically to the electoral roll at age 17 and placed on an electoral constituency based on their last reported address with the Office. That address, known as "electoral domicile," can be different from a person's living address, if so desired. The electoral roll may contain a substantial number of persons residing abroad. Residents abroad are not allowed to vote in Chilean elections.

Czech Republic

All citizens and residents are included in the national register. Each person is assigned a personal identification number that includes the person's date of birth and is divisible by 11.

Denmark

All citizens and residents of Denmark are included in the national register, Det Centrale Personregister. Each person is assigned a personal number of ten digits, which include the person's date of birth. The register is used for tax lists, voter lists, membership in the universal health care system, official record of residence, and other purposes. All eligible voters receive a card in the mail before each election which shows the date, time and local polling place; it may only be presented at the designated local polling station. Only citizens may vote in national elections, while long-time residents may vote in local and regional elections. Permanent address within Denmark is required in order to vote. Voting is voluntary.

Estonia

Every citizen has a personal identification code assigned since birth. Every citizen becomes automatically eligible to vote the day they turn 18. No special notifications are sent and voting is not compulsory. Everyone older than 16 who is a permanent resident (whether a citizen of Estonia, EU, or other) can vote in local elections depending on where they have registered their official residence. 

Finland

Voter registration in Finland is automatic and based on the national population register. Each citizen is assigned an identification number at birth. Permanent residents are recorded in this register even if they are not citizens, and their citizenship status is indicated in the register. People in the register are legally obliged to notify the register keeper of changes of address. Changing the address in the register automatically notifies all other public bodies (for example the tax district for local taxation, the social security authorities, the conscription authorities) and certain trusted private ones (e.g. banks and insurance companies), making the process of moving residence very simple. Close to election time, the government mails a notification to registered persons informing them of the election and where and when to cast their votes. Only citizens may vote in national elections, but all residents may vote in local elections.

Germany

In Germany, there is no separate voter registration, as resident registration is compulsory.

All permanent residents of Germany are required to register their place of residence (or the fact that they are homeless) with local government. Citizens who will be 18 or older on the day of voting automatically receive a notification card in the mail some weeks before any election in which they are eligible to vote: for local elections, resident citizens of other EU countries will also receive these cards and may vote. Polling places have lists of all eligible voters resident in the neighborhood served by the particular station; the voter's notification card (or photo ID such as an identity card or passport if the notification card is not at hand) is checked against these lists before individuals receive a ballot. Voting is not compulsory.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong all permanent residents who are above 18 years of age and do not suffer from a mental illness can register as voters. Imprisoned people can also register and vote since the laws prohibiting them from voting was ruled unconstitutional in 2009 and are able to vote since mid-2010 as the electoral roll is updated annually. The registration process is voluntary. In 2002 around 1.6 million permanent residents did not register.

Iceland

All citizens of Iceland are registered in a central database at birth, which is maintained by Registers Iceland. They do not need to register separately to vote.

India

The Government of India conducts a revision of the voters list every 5 years. An additional summary revision is conducted every year. Apart from this, citizens can request their inclusion in the voters list by applying through Form 6. If the application is valid, the applicant's name will get included in the list. At 18 years old, completed person should be eligible for voter list (for Indian citizens only).

Israel

In Israel, all citizens who are 18 years of age or older on election day are automatically registered to vote.

Italy

In Italy, all municipalities have a registry of residents and a registry of eligible voters. This is revised every six months and whenever there is an election. The registry of eligible voters can be viewed by anyone to ensure maximum transparency in the electoral process. All citizens aged 18 or more on the election day are automatically registered to vote.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, voter registration is carried out by local executive bodies (akimats) during general elections. All Kazakh citizens aged 18 years or older are eligible to register to vote at their relevant akimats from the moment of announcement or appointment of elections, given that they provide their identification number. Citizens may able to verify themselves in the electoral roll in case of inclusion or correctness of the data 15 days before election day within the premises of the corresponding election commissions. Voter registration in electoral precincts formed in the military units, on board the ships belonging to the Republic of Kazakhstan that on the day of elections are in navigation, in the rest houses, health resorts, medioprophilactic institutions, in the places of the citizens’ stay in the remote and hard-to-reach areas, in the distant pastures, in the investigative wards and detention centers as well as in the representations of the Republic of Kazakhstan in foreign states shall take place five days before the election day; in the electoral precincts formed at elections of members of other local self-government bodies - seven days before the election day.

To vote absentee, a voter no later than thirty days before the election shall notify the akimat his or her new place of residence for voter registration while Kazakh citizens living abroad must register to vote to their foreign precinct election commission by submitting a valid Kazakhstani passport.

Mexico

Voter ID card from Mexico.

Mexico has a general electoral census. Any citizen of age 18 or greater must go to an electoral office in order be registered into the electoral census. Citizens receive a voting card (credencial de elector con fotografía), issued by the National Electoral Institute (INE) (from 1990 until 4/2014 it was called Federal Electoral Institute) that must be shown to vote in any election. The voting card also serves as a national identity document.

Netherlands

No separate voter registration: all eligible voters receive an invitation with a poll card using the national Civil registration (Basic Registry of Persons). Voters must present a valid ID that has not expired for more than 5 years at the polling station. Eligibility varies depending on the type of election. For national and provincial elections, only Dutch civilians are permitted to vote, while for European Parliament elections one has to have the nationality of an EU member state. In municipal elections, eligibility is dependent on the place of residency on nomination day, with non-EU nationals also having voting rights when they have been living in the Netherlands legally for five years or more.

Norway

There is no separate voter registration: All eligible voters can automatically vote. Citizens and residents of Norway are included in the national register, Folkeregisteret, where each person is assigned a personal number of eleven digits which include the person's date of birth. The register is used for tax lists, voter lists, membership in the universal health care system and other purposes, and it is maintained by the tax authorities. People in the register are legally obliged to notify the register keeper of changes of address, no sooner than 31 days before, and no later than 8 days after a change of address. Changing the address in the register automatically notifies other public bodies (for example the tax district for local taxation, the social security authorities, the conscription authorities), making the process of moving residence very simple. All eligible voters receive a card in the mail before each election which shows the date, time and local polling place. Voters are assigned to a district based on the official address of residence per 30 June in the election year. Elections are normally held the 2nd Monday of September. Voters may vote early in any district in the country, usually at City Hall or similar, or in embassies and consulates abroad. Early voting starts in July, and ends about a week before election day. Only citizens may vote in national elections, while longtime residents may vote in local and regional elections. Voting is not compulsory.

Peru

All citizens of Peru between 18 and 70 years are registered to vote through the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status, except all members of the police and the armed forces, who are not allowed to participate in elections. For all citizens in the country and abroad voting is mandatory, unless legally exempted. Failing to vote in the election of 7 Oct 2018 was fined with S/ 83, with 50% or 75% discount for areas with poverty or extreme poverty, and this must be paid to get access to many public services.

Philippines

Main article: Voter registration in the Philippines

Filipino citizens who are at least 18 years of age are eligible to register to vote. A voter’s ID is issued if the requirements are met. In 2022, there were 1.7 million registered voters living overseas who were eligible to vote in national elections.

South Korea

There is no formal process for voter registration for South Korean citizens. All citizens will be automatically listed in the voters' list upon each election date. A domestic in-absentee vote was ceased and citizens can visit any residents' center (주민센터) and vote in advance during the weekend before the actual election date.

However, citizens either temporary visiting or permanently residing abroad must register for an overseas in-absentee ballot in order to vote. Voting can be done in Korean overseas missions.

Spain

No registration is required: all Spanish citizens of voting age are listed in the electoral roll through the National Statistics Institute's Electoral Census Office. Only citizens may vote in national and regional elections, while foreign residents may vote in local elections upon a reciprocity basis. Citizens from other European Union countries may also vote in European elections. Certain convicted felons are disenfranchised while serving their sentences, but their voting rights are automatically restored afterwards without exception. Most prisoners are not disenfranchised and can vote by mail as absentees.

All eligible voters receive a letter in the mail to their registered address prior to election Sunday showing the date, time and local polling place, which is almost invariably the nearest school or the town hall in very small towns without a school. Polling may also be done at a Spanish diplomatic mission if residing overseas. All absentee and early voting ballots are sent physically to the registered local polling station for counting and double checking the voter's identity with the electoral roll eliminating any risk of double voting. Government-issued ID is required to vote. Voting is not compulsory.

Sweden

Voter registration in Sweden is automatic and based on the national population register, Folkbokföringsregistret, administered by the Swedish Tax Agency, where all citizens and residents of Sweden are included. Permanent residents are recorded in this register even if they are not citizens but enjoy right of residence, and their citizenship status is indicated in the register.

Only Swedish citizens being 18 years old on the election day and living in Sweden may vote in all public elections. Registered residents may vote in local and regional elections if they are citizens of another EU Member State, Iceland or Norway. Citizens of other countries and stateless persons can vote in the municipal and county elections if they have been recorded in the Swedish Population Register for at least three consecutive years before election day. Swedish citizens that are resident abroad have the right to vote in Riksdag and EU elections only. To maintain a record in the electoral roll as an expatriate, one needs to refresh the registration within 10 years; a vote counts as a valid refresh.

All eligible voters receive a letter in the mail to their registered address of 30 days prior to election day, in Sweden or abroad, which shows the date (always on a Sunday, normally in September every 4 years), time and local polling place. Polling may also be done anywhere in the country at various early voting stations determined by the local election commission or at a Swedish diplomatic mission, all to facilitate for the voters.

Switzerland

Main article: Voting in Switzerland

Taiwan

Main article: Elections in Taiwan

All citizens of Taiwan are registered in a national database at birth, which is maintained by the Household Registration Office and the Central Election Commission of Taiwan. Taiwanese citizens do not need to register separately to vote, whereas all citizens above twenty years old will be automatically informed by postal mail from the government few weeks before every public election.

Turkey

Main article: Elections in Turkey

All citizens will be automatically listed in the voters' list upon each election date. Domestic and overseas registers are composed in competence with data taken from the Address Registration System (AKS) of the General Directorate of Civil Registration and Nationality. Citizens may control whether they are registered in domestic or overseas electoral registers by visiting the website of the Supreme Election Council or the e-Government.

United Kingdom

Main article: Electoral registration in the United Kingdom

In the UK voter registration is compulsory, but the requirement to register is rarely enforced. The 2023 system of registration in the United Kingdom (UK), is known as rolling registration. Electors can register with a local authority at any time of the year. This replaced the twice-yearly census of electors, which often disenfranchised those who had moved during the interval between censuses.

Across the country, the registration of electors is still technically the responsibility of the head of household, a concept which some consider to be anachronistic in modern society. As of 2023, the system is controversial, as it is possible for one person to delete persons who live with them from the electoral roll. As of January 2012, mandatory individual registration, pursuant to the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, was anticipated.

A feasibility study for electronic individual voter registration (IVR), based on the experience of other nations, was undertaken by EURIM (Information Society Alliance) in 2010. The final report was released in 2011. According to the House of Commons Hansard from 16 January 2012, the IVR initiative is yet to be implemented in the UK. There was discussion of data from Northern Ireland, where individual voter registration levels significantly decreased following the introduction of an IVR policy.

In an experiment in Northern Ireland using personal identifiers, such as National Insurance numbers and signatures, the number of registered electors fell by some ten thousand. It was also understood that the new process may have resulted in fictitious voters being dropped from rolls.

Registration is mandatory pursuant to section 23 of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 (No. 341) and violators are liable on summary conviction and face a maximum fine of £1,000. Voters must be on the electoral roll in order to vote in national, local or European elections. A fixed address is required in order for an individual to vote in an election. To provide for persons who are transient, if an individual lacking a fixed address wants to vote, they may register by filling in a 'Declaration of local connection' form. This establishes a connection to the area based on the last fixed address someone had, or the place where they spend a substantial amount of their time (e.g. a homeless shelter).

A voting card is sent to each registrant shortly before any elections. The individual does not need to take the card to the polling station, instead it serves to remind individuals of the details they had provided to the electoral register.

United States

A group of African-American children gather around a sign and booth to register voters. Early 1960s.

A Florida Sumter County Voter Information Card.

Main article: Voter registration in the United States

In the United States, states generally require voter registration, with North Dakota being the only state which has no registration requirement. Some U.S. states do not require advance registration, instead allowing voters to register when they arrive at the polls, in what is called same day registration (SDR) or election day registration (EDR).

Same-day registration (SDR) has been linked to higher voter turn-out, with SDR states reporting average turn-out of 71% in the 2012 United States Presidential election, well above the average voter turn-out rate of 59% for non-SDR states.

Voter registration in the United States takes place at the county or municipality level, and is a prerequisite to voting at federal, state and local elections. The only exception is North Dakota, although North Dakota law allows cities to register voters for city elections.

A 2012 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that 24% of the voting-eligible population in the United States are not registered to vote, a percentage that represents "at least 51 million eligible U.S. citizens." Numerous states had a history of creating barriers to voter registration through a variety of fees, literacy or comprehension tests, and record-keeping requirements that in practice discriminated against racial or ethnic minorities, language minorities, and other groups. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 forbade such abuses and authorized federal oversight in jurisdictions of historic under-representation of certain groups. States continue to develop new practices that may discriminate against certain populations. By August 2016, federal rulings in five cases have overturned all or parts of voter registration or voter ID laws in Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and North Dakota that were found to place undue burden on minorities and other groups among voters. The states were required to offer alternatives for the November 2016 elections; many of these cases were expected to reach the US Supreme Court for additional hearings.

While voters traditionally had to register at government offices by a certain period before an election, in the mid-1990s, the federal government made efforts to simplify registration procedures to improve access and increase turnout. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the "Motor Voter" law) required state governments to either provide uniform opt-in registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, and mail-in registration, or to allow voter registration on Election Day, where voters can register at polling places immediately prior to voting.

Political parties and other organizations sometimes hold voter registration drives, organized efforts to register groups of new voters.

Voter suppression

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression 

Voters at voting booths in the United States in 1945

Voter suppression is a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters through persuasion and organization, activating otherwise inactive voters, or registering new supporters. Voter suppression, instead, attempts to gain an advantage by reducing the turnout of certain voters. Suppression is an anti-democratic tactic associated with authoritarianism.

The tactics of voter suppression range from changes that increase voter fatigue, to intimidating or harming prospective voters.

Impact

Some argue the term 'voter suppression' downplays the harm done when voices are not reflected in an election, calling for terms like 'vote destruction' that accounts for the permanence of each vote not being cast. Making it harder to vote for people who have been given the right, can lead to voter fatigue. Skewing the electorate jeopardizes the wisdom of the crowd, and the decision-making benefits it brings. Suppression does not require intent. Analyzing the turnout of eligible voters provides a partial way to study cumulative voter suppression impacts under specific conditions, though other avenues such as election subversion, gerrymandering, and corruption, cannot always be captured by voter turnout metrics. Additionally, some of the rules that end up suppressing votes can also be used as a pretext for throwing out votes, even when voter fraud is extremely rare.

By type

Ballot design

A half-million Americans had their votes disqualified in 2008 and 2010 due to ballot design issues, including confusing instructions. The order of politicians on the ballot can also give one candidate an edge, while the length of a ballot can overwhelm voters, pushing them from the electorate for some or all races and increasing the wait times in lines for in-person voters.

Day-of experience

Requiring people to travel long distances and/or wait in long lines, for example suppresses voter turnout. Some parties in Europe that have less support among expats have made it much more difficult for them to cast ballots by removing vote by mail options, forcing some to travel hundreds of kilometers.

Weekend (such as Sunday voting in Australia), also contributes to higher turnout than weekday voting, maybe even more than having Election Day as a recognized holiday. A study in the UK found that when the sun sets later in the day, turnout tends to improve.

The Cost of Voting Index estimates how much more difficult the voting experience is on average in states around the U.S. 78% of respondents in one preferred vote-by-mail to voting in-person.

Disenfranchisement

The disenfranchisement of voters due to age, citizenship, or criminal record are among the more recent examples of ways that elections can be subverted by changing who is allowed to vote. For example, 16-17 year-olds cannot vote in most parts of the world. Some democracies remove voting rights for some long-term prisoners, but the U.S. remains the only democracy to allow many states to bar citizens from voting for life for past criminal offenses (felonies) despite evidence that voting reduces the risk of reoffending (a vestige of Jim Crow laws designed to keep black people from voting). Even when Floridians voted to overturn such a policy in 2018, the state legislature passed a law requiring all outstanding fines and fees be paid first before being eligible to vote, amounting to a modern-day poll tax. The debate over who should have a say extends to people on the path towards citizenship among other groups who may not be eligible to vote. Partial or full disenfranchisement of voters, like voter suppression, narrows the decision-makers to those using these autocratic tactics to grow their power.

Duty to vote

Having voting as optional, for example, weakens the cultural norms around voting by not elevating it to greater importance. Peer pressure and a sense of belonging are powerful incentives to do something collectively. A voting culture can grow with, for example, universal voting, reinforcing how voting is valued, expected and a centerpiece of a place's culture. Australia found that during an election that was optional around gay marriage (unlike most other elections there), voter turnout still reached 80%.

Modern proposals include requiring that every selection have a 'none of the above' option, allow a wide range of valid excuses for not voting including for conscientious objectors and charging a low, non-compounding, non-criminal fee for those who do not vote or select a valid reason.

Election subversion

Some examples of election subversion include denying the legitimacy of elections, disqualifying votes, permitting election insecurity and manipulation, and the intimidation of election officials.

Frequent elections

Main article: Voter fatigue

Frequent elections increase the amount of time and attention required of voters, typically leading to lower turnout among certain types of voters. Two-round elections (including primary elections), recall elections, and off-year elections are some examples of elections that contribute to voter fatigue. For example, Japan, Switzerland and the United States have among the lowest turnout rates of developed countries thanks to the federalism that contributes to them having a more complicated political system with more elections.entification

The requirement to have a photo identification in order to vote can disenfranchise many voters especially the young, elderly, lower-income people, recently transitioned individuals, people of color, recently married women and people with disabilities, with one Brennan Center estimate that 11% of Americans did not have the type of photo id recently required by many states. A solution implemented in a number of countries is to automatically send ID cards to all its citizens for free. Additionally, the implementation of signature-matching processes, especially for mail-in ballots, can also be done so strictly as to suppress orders of magnitude more votes than the actual fraud that it prevents.

Influence of money

Less-regulated campaign spending reduces the influence of every vote by giving more power to wealthy people, special interests and lobbyists. Corruption presents a more widely-recognized form of election subversion or electoral fraud where votes or positions are acquired illegally using money.

Information warfare

Misinformation, disinformation, and the platforms that incentivized to boost half-truths and lies are forms of information warfare that can be used to confuse, intimidate, or deceive voters. When misinformation and disinformation is amplified by the laundering of foreign money through domestic nonprofit organizations or other allied domestic actors, charges of treason can be brought against these actors for colluding with a foreign power.

Common examples include undermining journalism, academia, political speech and other fundamental exchanges of ideas and information. Free or low-cost sources of information, such as through libraries, schools, nonprofits, public media, or open-source projects (like Wikipedia), have historically supported this key democratic prerequisite. For example, two-thirds of U.S. college students in one study cited a lack of information as a reason for why they did not vote.

Intimidation and/or violence

Intimidation can result from the presence of cameras or guns at polling places to ballots that may not be secret. Following-through on threats by physically harming or killing people can severely deter voter participation.

Path dependence/tyranny of the past

The lack of intergenerational equity in policy undermines the ability of voters to pursue self-determination through their democratic processes. For example, the lifetime appointments of judges, or constitutions that are so difficult to change that they do not reflect the values of current voters, show how power allocated in the past can thwart voter power in the present. This kind of lock-in is only helpful if the present is less democratic than the past, which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy by simultaneously hampering the democratic innovations and evolutions that could prevent those threats by bolstering ancient architecture with the latest best-practices. Past actions can also create other kinds of path dependence, where power to shape democratic institutions can be slowed down or subverted by decisions made by those who wielded power in the past, regardless of how fairly (democratically) those setting the rules came to power and regardless of the values held by or information available to voters in the present. A relatively tangible example could be a country allowing itself to run up a large national debt that present-day voters did not consent to, shrinking discretionary spending to a fraction of what previous voters were able to spend.

Registration/Enrollment

Voter registration (or enrollment) is an extra step in the election process creates extra work for voters, especially those who move often and are new to the system, thereby suppressing their votes. Registration has been the number one reason why citizens in the U.S. do not vote, which is why most democracies automatically enroll their citizens. Same-day registration is another tool to make registration less of a barrier. In addition, the existence of the process itself opens up more opportunities to make the process intentionally difficult or impossible, including aggressive voter roll purges. The Cost of Voting Index quantifies some of the differences in voter registration experiences in U.S. states.

Party membership requirements

Another example where registration can suppress votes is requiring a declared party preference, which is required in closed primaries in the United States for example, dissuading voters who do not want to declare a party preference in order to weigh-in on who represents them. Open primaries allow anyone to vote regardless of party preference or affiliation. In some more authoritarian states, loyal party membership may be required to have a say, or even basic rights and privileges.

Wasted votes

Winner-take-all systems (unlike in systems with proportional representation), are especially vulnerable to weakening and wasting certain votes year after year. This phenomenon also suppresses turnout for that and other elections help simultaneously in states that are not competitive, suppressing the popular vote for president in the U.S., for example, while lowering turnout in a host of other contests. In contrast, a parliamentary system typically significantly reduces wasted (suppressed) votes, helping to ensure more vote equality and encouraging greater overall participation.

Ballot referendum can also be a powerful avenue for changing political systems, for example, that are not as responsive to voters due to gerrymandering or other anti-democratic actions and policies.

By country

Australia

Australian citizens are expected to enroll to vote, and it is their responsibility to update their enrollment when they change their address. Even so, an estimated 6% of eligible Australian voters are not enrolled or are enrolled incorrectly. They are disproportionately younger voters, many of whom might neglect to enroll when they attain voting age.

In 2006, the Howard government legislated to close the electoral roll much earlier once an election was called than before. Previously, voters had been allowed seven days of grace after an election had been called to arrange or update their enrollment, but new voters were now allowed only until 8:00 p.m. on the day that the electoral writ was issued to lodge their enrollment form, and those who needed to update their addresses were allowed three days. In Australia, the Prime Minister effectively has the right to determine the date of the election as long as constitutional rules regarding the maximum term of the parliament are adhered to. That measure was therefore likely to result in many newer voters being precluded from voting in the first election for which they were eligible because the time to arrange their enrollment once an election is called had been greatly reduced.

The measure was widely seen as an attempt at voter suppression aimed at younger voters since surveys had shown that younger voters are more likely than the general population to vote for the Australian Labor Party or the Greens than Howard's Liberal Party. The government denied that it was trying to suppress some voters and insisted that the purposes of the reform were a smoother administration of the elections and the reduction of the possibility of electoral fraud. However, the Australian Electoral Commission had requested no such reform, there had been no evidence of significant electoral fraud, and the Australian Electoral Commission had been dealing with hundreds of thousands of late enrollments without significant problems for decades.

In July 2010, the left-wing lobby group GetUp! launched a challenge to the law. The High Court of Australia expedited the hearing so that a ruling could be made in time for the 2010 federal election. The majority ruling struck down early closing of the roll and reinstated the old rule allowing voters seven days grace to arrange or update their enrollment.

Brazil

Further information: 2022 Brazilian general election § Voter suppression attempts

In the 2022 Brazilian general election, there were attempts by police and political sympathisers to make it more difficult for lower-income people to attend polling stations. Some public transport services were temporary reduced, spot inspections of vehicles and public transport were increased in poorer areas of the country, and roadblocks set up to disrupt and delay traffic.

Canada

Shortly before the 2011 Canadian federal election, voter suppression tactics were exercised by issuing robocalls and live calls, which falsely advised voters that their polling station had been changed. The locations offered by those messages were intentionally false, often led voters several hours from the correct stations, and often identified themselves illegally as coming from Elections Canada. In litigation brought by the Council of Canadians, a federal court found that such fraud had occurred and had probably been perpetrated by someone with access to the Conservative Party's voter database, including its information about voter preferences. The court stated that the evidence did not prove that the Conservative Party or that its successful candidates had been directly involved, but it criticized the Conservative Party for making "little effort to assist with the investigation." The court did not annul the result in any of six ridings where the fraud had occurred because it concluded that the number of votes affected had been too small to change the outcome.

France

In France, as in some other countries with Voter Registration, requirements and processes to update your address suppress voter turnout disproportionately against people who move more often, who tend to be younger, for example.

Israel

In April 2019, during Israel's general elections for the 21st Knesset, Likud activists installed hidden cameras in polling stations in Arab communities. Election observers were seen wearing such cameras. Hanan Melcer, the Head of the General Elections Committee, called the cameras illegal. The following day, the public relations agency Kaizler Inbar took credit for the operation and said it had been planned in collaboration with Likud. It claimed that voter turnout in Arab communities had fallen under 50% by the presence of the agency's observers in the polling stations, though some of this decrease is likely due to a boycott that was planned for the vote.

United Kingdom

Lutfur Rahman was the directly-elected mayor of Tower Hamlets for the British Labour Party. He was removed from office after being convicted of breaches of electoral law when his supporters intimidated voters at polling stations.

United States

Main article: Voter suppression in the United States

In the United States, elections are administered locally (though with many election rules set by states and the federal government), and forms of voter suppression vary among jurisdictions. When the country was founded, the right to vote in most states was limited to property-owning white males. Over time, the right to vote was granted to racial minorities, women, and youth.

In the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, Southern states passed Jim Crow laws to suppress poor and racial minority voters that involved poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses. Most of those voter suppression tactics were made illegal after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Even after the repeal of those statutes, there have been repetited incidents of racial discrimination against voters, especially in the South. For example, 87,000 people in Georgia were unable to vote in 2018 because of late registration. Many of the strictest voting regulations are in swing states and have been enacted primarily by U.S. Republican Party politicians. According to AMP Reports, many people who were predicted to be in favor of voting for the U.S. Democratic Party had their ballot dismissed. The study's analysis noted, "A disproportionate number of those potential voters were people of color or young voters, groups that typically favor Democrats." The history of the previous Jim Crow regulations in the Southern states affects the voter suppression today because minorities often have their vote dismissed by the manipulation of voting regulations.

One analysis of a Florida election in 2012 found that 200,000+ people did not vote because of long lines. Some Floridians were forced to wait 6–7 hours to vote.

In 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, several states enacted voter ID laws. Some argue that such laws amount to voter suppression against African-Americans.

In Texas, a voter ID law requiring a driver's license, passport, military identification, or gun permit was repeatedly found to be intentionally discriminatory. The state's election laws could be put back under the control of the U.S. Department of Justice. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, however, the DOJ expressed support for Texas's ID law. Sessions was accused by Coretta Scott King in 1986 of trying to suppress the black vote. A similar ID law in North Dakota, which would have disenfranchised many Native Americans, was also overturned.

In Wisconsin, a federal judge found that the state's restrictive voter ID law had led to "real incidents of disenfranchisement, which undermine rather than enhance confidence in elections, particularly in minority communities." Since there was no evidence of widespread voter impersonation in Wisconsin, it found that the law was "a cure worse than the disease." In addition to imposing strict voter ID requirements, the law reduced early voting, required people to live in a ward for at least 28 days before voting, and prohibited emailing absentee ballots to voters.

Other controversial measures include shutting down Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices in minority neighborhoods, which makes it more difficult for residents to obtain voter IDs; shutting down polling places in minority neighborhoods; systematically depriving precincts in minority neighborhoods of the resources needed to operate efficiently, such as poll workers and voting machines; and purging voters from the rolls shortly before an election.

Often, voter fraud is cited as a justification for such laws even if the incidence is low. In Iowa, lawmakers passed a strict voter ID law with the potential to disenfranchise 260,000 voters. Out of 1.6 million votes cast in Iowa in 2016, there were only 10 allegations of voter fraud, none of which being cases of impersonation that a voter ID law could have prevented. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, the architect of the bill, admitted, "We've not experienced widespread voter fraud in Iowa."

In May 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity for the purpose of preventing voter fraud. Critics have suggested its true purpose is voter suppression. The commission was led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a staunch advocate of strict voter ID laws and a proponent of the Crosscheck system. Crosscheck is a national database, which is designed to check for voters who are registered in more than one state by comparing names and dates of birth. Researchers at Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and Microsoft found that for every legitimate instance of double registration it finds, Crosscheck's algorithm returns approximately 200 false positives. Kobach has been repeatedly sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for trying to restrict voting rights in Kansas.

Secret ballot

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot

Luis Guillermo Solís, then-President of Costa Rica, votes behind a privacy screen which says "The VOTE is SECRET".

The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote buying. This system is one means of achieving the goal of political privacy.

Secret ballots are used in conjunction with various voting systems. The most basic form of a secret ballot utilizes paper ballots upon which each voter marks their choices. Without revealing the votes to anyone, the voter folds the ballot paper in half and places it in a sealed box. This box is later emptied for counting. An aspect of secret voting is the provision of a voting booth to enable the voter to write on the ballot paper without others being able to see what is being written. Today, printed ballot papers are usually provided, with the names of the candidates or questions and respective check boxes. Provisions are made at the polling place for the voters to record their preferences in secret, and the ballots are designed to eliminate bias and to prevent anyone from linking voter to ballot.

A privacy problem arises with moves to improve efficiency of voting by the introduction of postal voting and remote electronic voting. Some countries permit proxy voting, but some people argue that this is inconsistent with voting privacy. Popularity of the ballot selfie has challenged the secrecy of in-person voting.

Secret vs. public methods

The secret ballot became commonplace for individual citizens in liberal democracies worldwide by the late 20th century.

Votes taken by elected officials are typically public so that citizens can judge officials' and former officials' voting records in future elections. This may be done with a physical or electronic in-person system or through a roll call vote. Some faster legislative voting methods do not record who voted which way, though witnesses in the legislative chambers may still notice a given legislator's vote. These include voice votes where the volume of shouting for or against is taken as a measure of numerical support, and counting of raised hands. In some cases, a secret ballot is used, for example to allow representatives to choose party leadership without fear of retaliation against those voting for losing candidates. The parliamentary tactics of forcing or avoiding a roll call vote can be used to discourage or encourage representatives to vote in a manner that is politically unpopular among constituents (for example if a policy considered to be in the public interest is difficult to explain or unpopular but without a better alternative, or to hide pandering to a special interest) or to create or prevent fodder for political campaigns.

Public methods of citizen voting have included:

• Oral proclamation, where votes are shouted out one at a time, usually at an assembly
• Going to a particular area at an assembly, such as a town meeting or the Iowa caucus. This is the origin of the term poll for an election, originally meaning "top of the head" which is what was being counted at these assemblies.
• Small balls or other objects, such as corn, pebbles, beans, bullets, colored marbles, or cards. This is the origin of the term ballot, originally meaning "small ball".
• Raising of hands at an assembly
• Cutting a brightly colored ballot (with the color corresponding to the party of choice) out of a newspaper and bringing it to a polling place
• An open ballot system

Private methods of citizen voting have included:

• Writing the name of the preferred candidate or outcome on a piece of paper and putting it in a container (which excludes illiterate voters)
• Marking a government-printed ballot (which may exclude illiterate voters if they only include words and cannot get assistance, but some ballots include colors, symbols, or pictures to avoid this)

History

Ancient

In ancient Greece, secret ballots were used in several situations like ostracism and also to remain hidden from people seeking favors. In early 5th century BC the secrecy of ballot at ecclesia was not the primary concern, but more of a consequence of using ballots to accurately count the votes. Secret ballot was introduced into public life of Athens during second half of the fifth century.

In ancient Rome, the Tabellariae Leges (English: Ballot Laws) were a series of four laws that implemented secret ballots for votes cast regarding each of the major elected assemblies of the Roman Republic. Three of the four laws were put in place in relatively quick succession with one each in the years 139 BC, 137 BC and 131 BC, applying respectively to the elections of magistrates, jury deliberations excepting charges of treason as well as the passage of laws. The final of the four laws was implemented more than two decades later in 107 BC and served solely to expand the law passed in 137 BC to require secret ballots for all jury deliberations, including treason.

Prior to these ballot laws, one was required to provide their vote verbally to an individual responsible for tallying the votes, which effectively made every voter's vote publicly known. Mandating secret ballots had the effect of reducing the influence of the Roman aristocracy who were capable of influencing elections through a combination of bribes and threats. Secret balloting helps assuage both of those concerns, as not only are one's peers unable to determine which way you voted, there is additionally no proof that could be produced that you did vote certain way, perhaps contravening directions .

France

Article 31 of the Constitution of the Year III of the Revolution (1795) states that "All elections are to be held by secret ballot". The same goes with the constitution of 1848: voters could hand-write the name of their preferred candidate on their ballot at home (the only condition was to write on white paper) or receive one distributed on the street. The ballot was folded in order to prevent other people from reading its contents.

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte attempted to abolish the secret ballot for the 1851 plebiscite with an electoral decree requesting electors to write down "yes" or "no" (in French: "oui" or "non") under the eyes of everyone. But he faced strong opposition and finally changed his mind, allowing the secret ballot to take place.

According to the official web site of the Assemblée nationale (the lower house of the French parliament), the voting booth was permanently adopted only in 1913.

United Kingdom

The Polling by William Hogarth (1755). Before the secret ballot was introduced, voter intimidation was commonplace.

A British "how to vote" card from 1880

The demand for a secret ballot was one of the six points of Chartism. The British parliament of the time refused to even consider the Chartist demands, but it is noted that Lord Macaulay, in his speech of 1842, while rejecting Chartism's six points as a whole, admitted that the secret ballot was one of the two points he could support.

The London School Board election of 1870 was the first large-scale election by secret ballot in Britain.

After several failed attempts (several of them spearheaded by George Grote), the secret ballot was eventually extended generally in the Ballot Act 1872, substantially reducing the cost of campaigning (as treating was no longer realistically possible) and was first used on 15 August 1872 to re-elect Hugh Childers as MP for Pontefract in a ministerial by-election following his appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The original ballot box, sealed in wax with a licorice stamp, is held at Pontefract museum.

However, the UK uses numbered ballots in order to allow courts to intervene, under rare circumstances, to identify which candidate voters voted for.

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia, secret balloting appears to have been first implemented in Tasmania on 7 February 1856.

Until the original Tasmanian Electoral Act 1856 was "re-discovered" recently, credit for the first implementation of the secret ballot often went to Victoria, where it was pioneered by the former mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson, and simultaneously South Australia. Victoria enacted legislation for secret ballots on 19 March 1856, and South Australian Electoral Commissioner William Boothby generally gets credit for creating the system finally enacted into law in South Australia on 2 April of that same year (a fortnight later). The other British colonies in Australia followed: New South Wales (1858), Queensland (1859), and Western Australia (1877).

State electoral laws, including the secret ballot, applied for the first election of the Australian Parliament in 1901, and the system has continued to be a feature of federal elections and referendums. The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 does not explicitly set out the secret ballot but a reading of sections 206, 207, 325, 327 of the Act would imply its assumption. Sections 323 and 226(4) do however, apply the principle of a secret ballot to polling staff and would also support the assumption.

New Zealand implemented secret voting in 1870.

United States

New York polling place circa 1900, showing voting booths on the left

Before the final years of the 19th century, partisan newspapers printed filled-out ballots which party workers distributed on election day so voters could drop them directly into the boxes. Individual states moved to secret ballots soon after the presidential election of 1884, finishing with Kentucky in 1891 when it quit using an oral ballot.

Initially however, a state's new ballot did not necessarily have all four components of an "Australian ballot":

1. an official ballot being printed at public expense,
2. on which the names of the nominated candidates of all parties and all proposals appear,
3. being distributed only at the polling place and
4. being marked in secret.

Ballots or scanned images available to public for independent audits

Ballot images saved by election scanners

After ballots are cast and no longer identifiable to the voter, several states make the ballots and copies of them available to the public, so the public can check counts and do other research with the anonymous ballots.

Louisville, Kentucky, was the first city in the United States to adopt the Australian ballot. It was drafted by Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, the uncle of and inspiration for future Supreme Court associate justice Louis Brandeis. Massachusetts adopted the first state-wide Australian ballot, written by reformer Richard Henry Dana III, in 1888. Consequently, it is also known as the "Massachusetts ballot". Seven states did not have government-printed ballots until the 20th century. Georgia started using them in 1922. When South Carolina followed suit, in 1950, this completed the nationwide switch to Australian ballots. The 20th century also brought the first criminal prohibitions against buying votes, in 1925.

While U.S. elections are now held primarily by secret ballot, there are a few exceptions:

• North Carolina has a confidential ballot, but not a secret ballot for early in-person voting (one-stop) and absentee-by-mail voting. General Statute § 163-227.5 states that the "ballot shall have a ballot number on it in accordance with G.S. 163-230.1(a2), or shall have an equivalent identifier to allow for retrievability." If a voter casts an absentee ballot or votes at a one-stop site (early voting) or absentee-by-mail, but it is discovered that the voter was ineligible (ex. died between casting ballot and election day), the ballot would be retrieved using a unique number written at the top of the ballot. Each county Election Director maintains a database with the names of each voter and associated retrievable ballot number.
• Mail-in ballots do not meet the definition of Australian ballots, as they are distributed to voters’ homes, and there is no guarantee that they are marked secretly. They may be used as absentee ballots, and Colorado, Oregon, and Washington conduct all elections by mail.
• In some U.S. states, a political party nominating caucus requires an open ballot system. This includes, most notably, the leadoff Presidential nominating state of Iowa.
• The Constitution of West Virginia specifies that voters may choose to cast an open ballot, though they must also have the option to cast a secret ballot.

International law

The right to hold elections by secret ballot is included in numerous treaties and international agreements that obligate their signatory states:

• Article 21.3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "The will of the people...shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which...shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."
• Article 23 of the American Convention on Human Rights (the Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica) grants to every citizen of member states of the Organization of American States the right and opportunity "to vote and to be elected in genuine periodic elections, which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot that guarantees the free expression of the will of the voters".
• Paragraph 7.4 of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, obligates the member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to "ensure that votes are cast by secret ballot or by equivalent free voting procedure, and that they are counted and reported honestly with the official results made public."
• Article 5 of the Convention on the Standards of Democratic Elections, Electoral Rights and Freedoms in the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States obligates electoral bodies not to perform "any action violating the principle of voter's secret will expression."
• Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires that all Contracting States protect "the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums"

Disabled people

ISG TopVoter, a voting machine which assures secret ballot for voters with disabilities

Ballot design and polling place architecture often deny the disabled the possibility to cast a vote in secret. In many democracies disabled persons may vote by appointing another person who is allowed to join them in the voting booth and fill the ballot in their name. This does not assure secrecy of the ballot.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which entered into force in 2008 assures secret ballot for disabled voters. Article 29 of the Convention requires that all Contracting States protect "the right of the person with disabilities to vote by secret ballot in elections and public referendums". According to this provision, each Contracting State should provide for voting equipment which would enable disabled voters to vote independently and secretly. Some democracies, e.g. the United States, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Albania or India allow disabled voters to use electronic voting machines. In others, among them Azerbaijan, Canada, Ghana, the United Kingdom, and most African and Asian countries, visually impaired voters can use ballots in Braille or paper ballot templates. Article 29 also requires that Contracting States ensure "that voting procedures, facilities and materials are appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use." In some democracies, e.g. United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States, all the polling places already are fully accessible for disabled voters.

Secrecy exceptions

The United Kingdom secret ballot arrangements are sometimes criticized because it is possible to link a ballot paper to the voter who cast it. Each ballot paper is individually numbered and each elector also has a number. When an elector is given a ballot paper, their number is noted down on the counterfoil of the ballot paper (which also carries the ballot paper number). This means, of course, that the secrecy of the ballot is not guaranteed, if anyone can gain access to the counterfoils, which are locked away securely before the ballot boxes are opened at the count. Polling station officials colluding with election scrutineers may therefore determine how individual electors have voted.

This measure is thought to be justified as a security arrangement so that if there was an allegation of fraud, false ballot papers could be identified. The process of matching ballot papers to voters is formally permissible only if an Election Court requires it; in fact the Election Court has rarely made such an order since the secret ballot was introduced in 1872. One example was in a close local election contest in Richmond-upon-Thames in the late 1970s with three disputed ballots and a declared majority of two votes. Reportedly prisoners in a UK prison were observed identifying voters' ballot votes on a list in 2008. The legal authority for this system is set out in the Parliamentary Elections Rules in Schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.

In the United States, most states guarantee a secret ballot. But some states, including Indiana and North Carolina, require the ability to link some ballots to voters. This may for example be used with absentee voting to retain the ability to cancel a vote if the voter dies before election day. Sometimes the number on the ballot is printed on a perforated stub which is torn off and placed on a ring (like a shower curtain ring) before the ballot is cast into the ballot box. The stubs prove that an elector has voted and ensure that they can only vote once, but the ballots themselves are both secret and anonymous. At the end of voting day, the number of ballots inside the box should match the number of stubs on the ring, certifying that every ballot was cast by a registered elector, and that none of them were lost or fabricated. Sometimes the ballots themselves are numbered, making the vote trackable. In 2012 in Colorado, this procedure was ruled legal by Federal District Judge Christine Arguello, who determined that the U.S. Constitution does not grant a right to a secret ballot.