Voter Registration

The relative political disengagement of people living in poverty poses an enduring challenge to the integrity of American democracy. In 1993, Congress attempted to address this by passing section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act. This law requires that all public assistance agencies serve as voter registration sites. Though advocates had high hopes for section 7, it has proven difficult to implement. Since very early on, state compliance has varied widely, maintaining an overall trajectory of decline. This article explains the reasons for such patterns. By examining changes in compliance between 1995 and 2012, I demonstrate that race is a pivotal determinant of when states incorporate low-income policy beneficiaries into the electorate. I find that state compliance decreases significantly when (i) non-Whites are less active in electoral politics relative to their White counterparts; (ii) African Americans comprise a greater share of the state population; and (iii) welfare bureaucracies employ more Latinos. These findings raise concerns about the political equality of disadvantaged citizens and underscore the need to scrutinize the outcomes of expansionary voting policies. Even more broadly, this research shows how the entanglement of race and poverty in a federalist polity frustrates efforts to advance participatory equality.

Voter registration is the tool for enforcing universal suffrage by ensuring that every individual who is eligible to vote is able to exercise his or her right to vote. It serves also the principle of equal suffrage as it guarantees that every voter will cast his or her ballot only once. In our essay we made an attempt at offering a brief survey of legislation and practice in connection with voter registration. We examined almost 40 participating
states of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for exploring similarity and difference between the ways in which they regulate voter registration and between the ways in which voter registration effectively operates.

This comparative study was made in the framework of project ‘Developing accurate voters’ list in transitional democracies’ realized by Association of European Election Officials (ACEEEO) financed by the United Nations Democracy Fund.

In Zsuffa István (ed.): Developing Accurate Voter Lists in Transitional Democracies. Association of European Election Officials, Budapest, 2010. 103-136.

CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION Prof. M. Sridhar Acharyulu (Madabhushi Sridhar) Information Commissioner CIC/SA/C/2015/000157 Sumit Vs. Chief Election Officer Decision:  29-­07­-2015 Summary:  The voter has a right to know, first that his name was deleted, then the reasons for decision to delete his name from the voter’s list. Such an arbitrary deletion and denial of information even after deletion, followed by non­response to RTI request for reasons for that deletion would certainly amount to denial of a very significant Constitutional & statutory right to vote and right to information under RTI Act.  Principles of Natural Justice, Section 22 of Representation of People Act 1950, Section 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and the ratio in landmark judgment of Justice L Narasimha Reddy  of  Andhra  Pradesh  High  Court  demand  that  a  valid  voter  is  expected  to  get  adequate opportunity of being heard by the authority before deletion of name of voter.  The Commission records its appreciation for appellant, the young boy for his anguish at the unjust denial of opportunity to cast his vote in recent Assembly elections in Delhi, showing  greater concern for the right to vote and choosing the path of RTI to seek the reasons and restoration of right lost. In fact, he was performing his duty as alert citizen of this democratic country to secure his most valuable right, i.e., right to vote.  The Commission directs CPIO of the Public Authority (Chief Election Officer) to show cause why penalty should not  be imposed for not furnishing the information to the complainant within the prescribed period, to inform appellant the reasons for deletion of his name from the voter’s list, to inform if any inquiry was conducted into such deletion after deletion, if not to conduct an inquiry into arbitrary  deletion of his name, to inform what action was  proposed to be taken against officer responsible for deleting his name, to inform when his name and right to vote will be restored, to prepare a set of guidelines to follow before deleting names, to inform fact of proposed deletion, grounds for such  action  of  deletion,  and provision  of  adequate opportunity to  affected  voter to represent his case etc, and post the same on official website, along with FAQs on the subject, and to pay Rs 10,000/­ compensation on the grounds that appellant was not informed about deletion, not informed about the grounds/reasons for deletion which amounted to violation of right, and he was not given any response to his RTI application within 30 days as stipulated by RTI Act.

Les technologies d'identification biométrique, de plus en plus utilisées lors des élections en Afrique, sont vendues comme un moyen de lutter contre la fraude. À partir du cas de l'enregistrement des électeurs au Tchad pour la présidentielle de 2016, l'article étudie comment s'est développé un imaginaire de la biométrie qui oppose la rationalité et la neutralité supposées de la technologie à la perversion de la politique. Il montre que, si la biométrie a été construite comme une nécessité et une « solution » pour résoudre la crise politique, elle a été repolitisée par des controverses sur le choix de la « bonne » technologie, ses utilisations et le rôle des acteurs internationaux, notamment des industriels français.

Authors: Jose Cruz and Jackie Hayes

As of 2002, only nine states collected racial data on voter registration forms, in six out of the nine states the provision of information about race is optional. This report provides a comparative analysis of electoral data collection practices in Alabama, California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania with the purpose of making recommendations that will improve electoral data collection in New York. The working assumption
of this research is that electoral data collection by race and ethnicity is justifiable, fair, and necessary. Provisions about the collection of racial
data have been primarily established to aid efforts to identify needs and target services for minority communities, as well as to track discriminatory practices.

The risks associated with data collection by race and ethnicity in terms of privacy and governmental abuse are minimal, even in cases where racial and ethnic identification is required rather than optional. California was the most recent example of a state adopting a provision to collect racial data on voter registration forms. The state’s experience illustrates that the change has a minimal fiscal impact.

After comparing the experiences of four states that collect racial data, it seems apparent that New York State should also collect racial data on voter registration forms. The state should emulate California but take its initiative one-step further by requiring rather than requesting citizens to specify their racial/ethnic background on the state voter registration form. The collection of data by race and ethnicity will allow researchers to better gauge voter registration and turnout in the state. With this information efforts to promote voting would be more effective. Policymakers will be better able to monitor and regulate the electoral process to insure the highest degree of participation by citizens. Political parties and civic organizations will be in a better position to mobilize voters. Finally, the collection of electoral data by race and ethnicity will safeguard not just minority voting rights but the rights of all voters as well.

Social media has become a prominent and a powerful forum for voter enlightenment, political activism and fastest means of information dissemination. An individual without a social media account is seen in the society as obsolete. Social media has indeed become our lives personally and professionally. An average smart phone owner cannot do without visiting a social media platform daily. Social media therefore can be used effectively to target particular voters, encourage people to exercise their franchise and to make information go viral. Social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube help to activate citizens' engagement in political life. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) saddled with the responsibility of educating voters on their electoral roles and responsibilities unfortunately doesn't have pronounced presence in the social space. This paper analyses the roles of social media in voters' sensitization, the presence of INEC in the cyberspace and how INEC can make itself more active in the cyberspace for effective information dissemination and voter education.

The need for fool proof authentication procedures away from traditional authentication mechanisms like passwords, security PINS has led to the advent of biometric authentication in information systems. Biometric data extracted from physiological features of a person including but not limited to fingerprints, palm prints, face or retina for purpose of verification & identification is saved as biometric templates. The inception of biometrics in access control systems has not been without its own hitches & like other systems it has its fair share of challenges. Biometric fingerprints being the most mature of all biometric spheres are the most widely adopted biometric authentication systems. Biometric systems effectiveness lies on how secure they are at preventing inadvertent disclosure of biometric templates in an information system’s archive. This however has not been the case as biometric templates have been fraudulently accessed to gain unauthorized access in identification and verification systems. In order to achieve strong and secure biometric systems, biometric systems developers need to build biometric systems that properly secure biometric templates. Several biometric template protection schemes and approaches have been proposed and used to safeguard stored biometric templates. Despite there being various biometric template protection schemes and approaches in existence, none of them has provided the most authentic, reliable, efficient and deterrent means to totally secure biometric fingerprint templates. This research sought to establish status of the current biometric template protection techniques and methods by conducting a survey and analyzing data gathered from a sample of seventy-eight (78) respondents. We will report these results and give our conclusion based on findings of the survey in this paper.

masters degree thesis presents undeniable proof that several federal elections were stolen in the previous 15 years.  This work proves in undeniable terms the theft of two presidential elections. It includes who stole these elections, how they did it, and who was possibly murdered to cover it up.  Paper finds clear methodologies of how actors steal elections in the US and proves ideas on how to prevent fraud.

Pressures have increasingly been put upon social scientists to prove their economic, cultural and social value through 'impact agendas' in higher education. There has been little conceptual and empirical discussion of the challenges involved in achieving impact and the dangers of evaluating it, however. This article argues that a critical realist approach to social science can help to identify some of these key challenges and the institutional incompatibilities between impact regimes and university research in free societies. These incompatibilities are brought out through an autobiographical 'insider-account' of trying to achieve impact in the field of electoral integrity in Britain. The article argues that there is a more complex relationship between research and the real world which means that the nature of knowledge might change as it becomes known by reflexive agents. Secondly, the researchers are joined into social relations with a variety of actors, including those who might be the object of study in their research. Researchers are often weakly positioned in these relations. Some forms of impact, such as achieving policy change, are therefore exceptionally difficult as they are dependent on other actors. Strategies for trying to achieve impact are drawn out such as collaborating with civil society groups and parliamentarians to lobby for policy change. This is a pre-print of an article due for publication in the journal British Politics. Please cite and quote from the final version of the article.

In a democracy, agents of political socialization, such as schools and parents, generally emphasize the importance of voting. While college students may be exposed briefly to voter registration as a barrier to participation, there is little evidence that the topic is given serious attention in the classroom. This research addresses how classroom experiences affect students’ attitudes about voter registration by employing a quasi-experimental, pre-post survey design. The experimental stimulus was a course assignment in which students completed voter registration applications under four scenarios designed to simulate different circumstances
frequently encountered by college students. The students in the experimental group became much less sanguine about the ease of registration and the ability of most citizens to correctly navigate the process, yet became more confident in the voter registration process in general. This raises interesting questions about how
attitudes about the political process are shaped by students’ course experiences.

Resumen
Desde las revoluciones de independencia, las elecciones fueron una práctica asidua en Hispanoamericana, e insustituible como forma de expresar la voluntad popular y así otorgar legitimidad a los gobernantes por parte del pueblo, proclamado soberano. Sin embargo, contamos con pocas
referencias sobre la cantidad de votantes que participaron en ellas.
¿Cuánta gente votaba? ¿Cómo evolucionó la participación electoral?
¿Qué cuestiones explican el desenvolvimiento de la curva de la
participación? Son interrogantes que, a pesar de ser centrales para
la problemática, no han sido sistemáticamente profundizados
por la historiografía sobre las elecciones decimonónicas.
Así, pues, indagaremos los procesos electorales, desde una perspectiva
cuantitativa, para dimensionar la participación del electorado y su
evolución. Para ello reconstruiremos cuantitativamente la participación
electoral registrada en la provincia de Buenos Aires entre 1815 y 1862.

Abstract
Since the Independence revolutions, elections have been regular
practice in Spanish America, and irreplaceable as a way of
expressing the popular will, granting legitimacy to the rulers by
the people, proclaimed as sovereign. Nevertheless, we have few
references to the number of voters who participated in them.
How many people voted? How did electoral participation evolve?
Which issues explain the course of participation curve? These are
questions that, despite central for the matter, have not been deeply
systematized by the historiography on nineteenth-century elections.
Therefore, we will explore the electoral processes from a quantitative
perspective in order to evaluate the electorate participation and its evolution.
For that purpose, there will be a quantitative reconstruction of the electoral
participation registered in Buenos Aires province between 1815 and 1862.

A Legal analysis of the decision in Shelby County v. holder and how the decision has opened the door to new forms of voter suppression in the same way that past decisions led to the need for the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

This comment will address the history of voter discrimination throughout the country and highlight the journey and struggle that led to the passage of the VRA. Part I of this comment will focus on the history of voter discrimination and the early attempts at universal suffrage. Part II of this comment will focus on the rise of “race neutral” voting restrictions in the years following the civil war, particularly highlighting the use of the poll tax and literacy test. Part III will focus on the civil rights movement and the battle for a comprehensive voting rights act in the middle of the century. Part IV for will be an in depth examination of the decision in Shelby County v. Holder as well as an analysis of current voter suppression tactics. Finally, Part V will propose solutions for lessening the impact of voter suppression, including the possibility of developing another section 4(b) coverage formula.

Public opinion on high-visibility election rules can be expected to reflect elite-level party divisions. We explain how partisanship affects support for, and opposition to, low-visibility convenience voting reforms. We find state-level factors such as quality of polling-place voting and party polarization explain some variance in support. However, individual-level factors are paramount. Attitudes about election reforms are strongly conditioned by partisan predispositions, with Democrats more supportive and Republicans more opposed. In addition, we find younger people, those with lower incomes, nonvoters, and people with disabilities were more likely to support proposals that might make voting easier. Although this cannot demonstrate that increased convenience voting would alter the composition of the electorate, it shows that, above and beyond partisanship, people who faced greater barriers to voting were most supportive of making voting easier. However, the dominant role of partisa...

Public opinion on high-visibility election rules can be expected to reflect elite-level party divisions. We explain how partisanship affects support for, and opposition to, low-visibility convenience voting reforms. We find state-level factors such as quality of polling-place voting and party polarization explain some variance in support. However, individual-level factors are paramount. Attitudes about election reforms are strongly conditioned by partisan predispositions, with Democrats more supportive and Republicans more opposed. In addition, we find younger people, those with lower incomes, nonvoters, and people with disabilities were more likely to support proposals that might make voting easier. Although this cannot demonstrate that increased convenience voting would alter the composition of the electorate, it shows that, above and beyond partisanship, people who faced greater barriers to voting were most supportive of making voting easier. However, the dominant role of partisan predispositions suggests limits to rules changes that might make voting easier.

Keywords
election reform, public opinion, convenience voting, partisan polarization

A reliable voter list is a necessary precondition for free and fair elections. However, many developing countries have persistent difficulties in registering their electors and establishing their identity. Following polemics about the quality of existing voter rolls, these countries have recently introduced reforms to their voter registration systems, such as the adoption of voter IDs and of biometric technology. Looking at three West African countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – this paper argues that the impact of these reforms has been mixed, that economic costs have not always been justified and that sophisticated technology does not guarantee the success and acceptance of voter registration.

"Why We Can't Have Nice Things" explores the feasibility of using  internet or online voting processes in U.S. national elections. For many years, the consensus has been that online voting could never be trusted for elections due the perception of the vulnerability of online transactions to hacking, fraud, theft, and other harmful acts. However, just as technological advances has increased the availability and use of internet based survey and voting methods, also as technology advanced with ways to secure those transactions and activities. According to some, the idea of highly vulnerable online elections is a myth to prevent allowing more Americans to participate in national elections. For others, any risk of tampering is too great to accept, for online or in person voting.

The decision of voter enrollment among Chilean youth is re-examined in this paper. Geographical and gender differences regarding what determines voter-registration rate among youth are also explored. Electoral and socioeconomic data are collected from 272 Chilean counties in order to estimate the fractional-response and the random-effects Tobit models. The results indicate that the voter registration rate is higher among lower-income youth, which differs from earlier studies, and redefines the implications of a class-biased electorate in Chile. Furthermore, the evidence suggests an increasing political disaffection among indigenous youth that reside in rural counties.

In September 2012, the California Secretary of State made it possible, for the first time, for the state’s eligible voters to register online. In fewer than 5 weeks prior to the November 2012 election, 787,337 of California’s eligible voters took advantage of this opportunity. In this article, I explore the demographics of
California’s November 2012 online registrants with a particular focus on nativity in order to see whether US born Latina/o and Asian-American online registrants have different characteristics than those who are naturalized. I find Latino and Asian-American naturalized voters used online voter registration at high rates,
but that Asian-origin naturalized voters did so at lower rates than Latinos, suggesting the need for more targeted outreach to naturalized voters of different ethnoracial
backgrounds.

Pre-publication, English-language version of the article published in Politique Africaine (Issue 144, December 2016, 51–71) as ‘Politiques de la Reconnaissance et de l’origine controlee: La construction du Somaliland a travers ses cartes d’electeurs’.

In the United States voting is a unique two-step process requiring citizens to first register to vote, sometimes several weeks in advance of an election, which can have the effect of precluding certain voters.  This study focuses on the impact expansive, inclusive voter registration reform can have on registration and turnout rates among 18 to 24-year-olds, as well as overall.  This is accomplished by comparing registration rates and turnout rates of a proportional representative sample of states with and without Election Day Registration.  While not being explicitly causal, states with Election Day Registration consistently have higher turnout rates among all age groups.  This study also goes further to investigate the benefits of opt-out registration in Oregon.  Since implementation Oregon has registered 34,410 new voters, which equates to 15,375 per month.  Ultimately removing encumbrances to the polls through Election Day Registration or further, shifting the burden of registration to the state as opposed to voters through an opt-out system, has a positive effect on registration and turnout rates for young voters.

Voting in the United States is a constitutional right, allowing citizens to voice concerns involving policies and laws. It is an essential civil liberty, in which the modification of voter laws can affect over 206 million eligible voters. Since 2008, more than half of the States in the U.S.A. have or are in the process of implementing voter ID laws. These laws have introduced many problems associated with identification credentials, including non-photo voter IDs and photo IDs that are required to vote. If all these new laws are passed, it is predicted that millions of Americans will be disenfranchised, making it more difficult for eligible voters to cast ballots. This paper introduces an identity verification method called video verification (vSquared). vSquared is a tool that uses a video of a person stating their name and address to verify identify claims. In this experiment, the identity verification methods included the use of a person presenting a voter ID card (without photo), a photo ID card, and using vSquared. Each of these three methods had a real condition where the person and matching ID were all legitimate and also a fraudulent condition where impersonation was involved. Each participant had to verify the identity of three different individuals, where some of the individuals represented real conditions while others were impersonating someone else. Participants in the study played the role analogous to a poll worker and had to say if they thought the condition was real or fraudulent. This is similar to the scenario where a poll worker would have to verify an individual’s identity prior to voting in an election. The experiment aimed to identify the major differences in recognition rates, if any, for the current verification methods (voter ID and photo ID) against each other and also vSquared. Based on this research, vSquared detected fraud at least 70% more accurately than a non-photo voter ID or photo ID. Although, both the photo ID and vSquared identifying methods were proficient when identifying conditions that were considered to be legitimate IDs, 72% of participants preferred vSquared as a more accurate method for identity verification.

Computer voting was introduced in Belgium in 1994. Paradoxically, no action had been taken to ascertain the opinion of electors confronted with this original method of voting. This article verifies the social and empirical dimensions of legitimacy of this new method through several empirical indicators used in a survey conducted on the occasion of the federal elections of 18 May 2003:  (a) how easy/difficult it was for electors to vote on a computer; (b) to what extent they trust voting
on a computer; (c) if they have a philosophical/social opposition to voting on a computer.

Question
Cost of elections in fragile states: Please provide a comparison of how much national elections (Presidential and Parliamentary) have cost per capita in fragile states since 2000.

Helpdesk response:
There is limited literature available on this topic. A lot of the information that is available only provides the cost of certain elements of the election, mainly in relation to voter registration. In addition, there appear to be inconsistencies in the costings provided by the available sources.

The most comprehensive source currently available is “CORE: A Global Survey on the Cost of Registration and Elections”, produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). It is a guide to election processes relating to registration and cost of elections around the world, including examples from conflict-affected and fragile states.

The report includes case studies of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Libya and Sierra Leone.

Key issues to consider in relation to the cost of elections in fragile states include:
•Elections tend to cost more in fragile states due to integrity costs  Integrity costs relate to creating the conditions for a safe, free and fair election, through both voter and ballot security.
•Integrity costs will decrease as countries become more democratic.
•In a country which has not experienced a democratic election in decades, such as Afghanistan, costs are driven up by the need to create an election infrastructure and to educate and inform the electorate.

This article examines the voter registration card and the social context of voter registrations in the Gambia, West Africa. Drawing on recent ethnographies of documents and using data on worries over foreigners’ efforts to fraudulently obtain voter registration cards, a public information campaign on the Gambian electoral process, international legal material on the Gambian democracy, and observations at voter registration stations, the article argues that the voter registration card delineates not only a national subject but also a generic political subject. This subject is characterized by a commitment to a bureaucratic process and an appreciation of the card as an official identification document inseparable from the person it identifies. The article also considers how the voter registration process allows Gambians to compare their experiences to citizens of other countries. In a political context of an authoritarian government and a weak rule of law, this comparison offers an ideal of a modern democratic state that both enables criticism of the Gambia’s present situation and confirms the centrality of a generic political subject to the realization of that ideal.

The need for fool proof authentication procedures away from traditional authentication mechanisms like passwords, security PINS has led to the advent of biometric authentication in information systems. Biometric data extracted from physiological features of a person including but not limited to fingerprints, palm prints, face or retina for purpose of verification & identification is saved as biometric templates. The inception of biometrics in access control systems has not been without its own hitches & like other systems it has its fair share of challenges. Biometric fingerprints being the most mature of all biometric spheres are the most widely adopted biometric authentication systems. Biometric systems effectiveness lies on how secure they are at preventing inadvertent disclosure of biometric templates in an information system’s archive. This however has not been the case as biometric templates have been fraudulently accessed to gain unauthorized access in identification and veri...

There is a raging debate over the administration of elections, which is undoubtedly familiar to many. There has been a significant increase in a particular kind of election law pertaining to how states go about administering elections. These laws have largely been promulgated by Republicans and target election fraud — actual or perceived — in an attempt to restore some integrity to the electoral process. Democrats, for the most part, have opposed these laws and often critiqued them as a kind of voter suppression tactic, one that disproportionately burdens racial minorities, the poor, and those who have recently moved into a precinct. Over the years, these positions have hardened into fairly partisan and seemingly intractable positions.

This story, of course, is also the story of the voter registration debates in late nineteenth century America.

This Article sketches that history and offers some general reasons why voter registration laws moved from controversial to generally-accepted. It then offers some comparisons to current controversies over voter identification laws. It concludes with potential lessons for the future administration of such laws and possible means of resolving seemingly intractable disputes.

A 1988 plebiscite determined whether General Augusto Pinochet would continue to rule Chile for an additional eight years. Believing he would win, Pinochet took measures to ensure that the plebiscite appeared legitimate to international observers including actions meant to encourage opposition participation. The fear and uncertainty among the population after 15 years of repressive rule cast doubt on whether or not citizens would participate and vote their true preferences. In contentious environments, people tend to falsify their publicly expressed preferences to reflect what they believe is the position of the majority (Kuran 1995), which creates a “spiral of silence” (Noelle-Neuman 1974) that masks the true degree of discontent. Ultimately, Pinochet suffered a defeat that surprised many including the general himself. I argue that the unexpected strong support for the ‘No’ vote resulted in part from abundant news coverage of party registration drives and government concessions meant to encourage opposition participation. I contend that the media’s coverage of these registration drives and the publication of several opinion polls leading up to the plebiscite generated common knowledge (Chwe 2001) about people’s intention to participate as well as revealing the degree of support for opposition parties, which increased participation among ‘No’ voters.