Developing of Voter Lists in the Republic of Lithuania

Zenonas VaigauskasThe Central Electoral Commission

of the Republic of Lithuania

9-11 September, 2010Tbilisi

1. The Republic of Lithuania

• Area - 65.2 thousand. km ²;• Population - 3.3 million., • Citizens - 3.3 million., • Citizens who have right to vote (age

on election day 18) - 2.7 million., • Voters who have voted abroad and

on ships sailing with the flag of the Republic of Lithuania (measured, then they are up to 0.4 million) - 20 thousands;

• Other nationals, stateless persons - 41.5 thousand;

• Other state citizens, permanent residents of Lithuania who are entitled to participate in municipal elections - 25 thousand.

2. A bit of history

Over the past 20 years of the independent Republic of Lithuania:

• Global Parliamentary elections were arranged 6 times;

• President of the Republic was elected 5 times;

• Local governments were elected 6 times;• Elections to the European Parliament

were arranged 2 times.

3. The organizing of elections • The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) is a permanent supreme

(independent) state institution for organizing of elections. The CEC is formed for four year term by Seimas and consists of the representatives of political parties which received mandates in multi-member constituency, Minister of |Justice and Lawyers’ Society. Neither political parties, nor the coalition of them have the majority in the Commission. The Seimas cannot prevent the opposition to appoint its representatives.

• The CEC forms from 60 to 71 electoral commissions of the middle level for each elections. These commissions form polling district commissions. A total of 18–20 thousand members work for the commissions.

• The commission members take office upon having given a written pledge. In case a member breaks a pledge, he cannot be appointed a member of the Commission for several years. The work in the Commission is paid.

• Electoral commissions consist of representatives of political parties while taking into account the results of last elections. Besides, electoral constituency commission consists of the persons who have a university law degree and nominated by the director of administration of municipality and Minister of Justice.

• The decisions which are taken by the CEC and belong to its competence are legally binding upon all. The decisions can be revoked or amended exclusively by the Commission or by the Court.

4. Developing voter lists 4.1.All the voters who have the right to vote should be registered in the voter list. Voter lists are prepared according to the Register

of Residents before each election.

• In the Register of Residents there are registered all persons who have citizenship of Republic of Lithuania. First name and surname, personal code, date of birth, data of document certified citizenship (the document is printed upon the data of this register), declared place of residence and history of all the data changes are indicated. The fact of death is registered as well. Nowadays records to the Register of Residents are very accurate: there are no double entries, persons who are not registered, or registered with a mistaken surname, the same mistakes in passport, or identity card. The situation was different in the beginning of establishment of the Register of Residents: persons were registered twice, some persons were marked as dead and some deaths were not registered. Yet a lot of discrepancies remain in the indication of place of residence. There are a lot of persons who have not declared their departure abroad and actually live in other place of residence than the officially declared or have no possibilities to declare their place of residence (students, tenants etc.).

4.2. The second register is a register of polling districts’ addressees used for compiling the voter lists. All the declared addresses are ascribable to one of 60 municipalities and then to a polling district. This Register is maintained by the CEC in collaboration with municipal administrations and remains constant during all the elections. This register is revised before each election, new or changed addresses are entered. The addresses in the Register are regulated by standard (municipality, settlement, street, number of house and flat). In the future the Register will be supplemented by geographical coordinates. That will enable the polling districts to be set up not like the sum of its addressees, but like a location specified by geographical coordinates (set of numbers).

4.3. Only a person who has been declared legally incompetent by the court shall not participate in the elections. Neither custodial sentence nor other conviction, nor service in active or mandatory military, nor stay in hospitals can set bounds to the right of suffrage. A person is not eligible if he or she has not yet served their sentence imposed by the court or is performing the mandatory or active military service. Therefore voting is arranged in prisons, military units and hospitals. Voter’s vote cast in such places is sent to the polling district where the voter is registered.

The Register of persons who have been declared legally incompetent by the court is under construction. The CEC together with other concerned institutions are involved in the process of establishment of such a register.

5. Voter lists in its entirety• 5.1. The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania

is the main one. Other voter lists form part and parcel of it. All the changes in voter lists are entered in the main voter list. The voter lists exist like a computerized data base.

• 5.2.The municipal/constituency voter lists. It is a part of the main list. Municipal/constituency voter list is conducted by electoral commissions of the middle level (municipal/constituency electoral commissions) by electronic means.

• 5.3.The polling district voter lists. It is a part of the data base which is printed before elections. There are two copies of polling district voter list printed.– The purpose of the first one is to introduce it to voters, representatives

of political parties and candidates.– The second one is used in polling district commission while revising

voter list. In this latter voter list there are non public information (mark) about persons who are entitled to vote at home: disabled voters, voters with temporary working incapacity due to an illness, voters aged 70 and over. This information is not sufficient. The commission member must inquire whether the ill person would like to vote at home. In the voter list it must be marked the fact of delivered or not delivered voter certificate. If the voter certificate has not been delivered the reason must be indicated.

– The voter certificate (voter card) is the informative notification for voters about their polling district, its address, the surname and contacts of chairman of electoral committee and other information. The voter certificates are printed according the data of the voter list of the Republic of Lithuania. In the process of delivering of voter certifications the voter lists are revised and the lists of voters voting at home are made.

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– When all voter lists’ changes are recorded the Final voter list is printed according the data of The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania. Changes in a voter list can be entered by municipal electoral committees, voting committees in embassies and consular posts. A voter in The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania can be deleted only in case of death. Transferring a voter from one to another voter list of polling district is possible while revising the accuracy of voter lists before drawing up final voter lists. The final voter list of polling district is used on the election day. The fact of ballot paper delivery is confirmed on this list by the signatures of the voter and the member of committee. The fact of receiving vote of the voter who has voted in advance not in the polling district, is checked in the voter list as well.

5.4. Voters lists of voters residing abroad are drawn up by diplomatic missions and consular post of the Republic of Lithuania. Voters registered on the voter lists of voters residing abroad are deleted from voter lists of polling districts. Voter lists of voters who sail on the ships with Lithuanian flag are drawn up as well.

6. Which polling district is mine?

• Notice. There is no voter lists for voters voting in prisons, hospitals, military units, for voters voting in advance or at home. Lists which are compiled of such voters are used only for the purpose of accounting and for delivering ballot papers. The vote of voter voted in prison, hospital, military unit, at home or in advance is sent by male and is counted in the polling district were the voter is registered. To avoid envelopes being opened before, the specific holographic sticker is used. To prevent disclosure of vote secret, two envelops are used. The address of polling district is indicated on the voter certificate. Therefore it is very important to know one’s polling district.

• Call service 1855 provides information for voters. The voter will get answers to such questions: which voter list he is registered in, what are procedures for voters registering, what means of voting are available. Information source is the data of The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania.

• A voter himself may print his voter certificate in accordance with the data of The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania received via internet. In this case, the voter himself signs his voter certificate and takes it when voting in advance, at home, in hospital; in prison (in this case chief of office is liable for organizing the voting and taking care of voters certificates).

7. Additional information used in the voter list

• Committee’s members delivering voter certificates use additional information about a voter’s right to vote at home. CEC in collaboration with The State Social Insurance Fund Board under the Ministry of Social Security and Labor and with the Service for institution of disability mark voters in voter lists who due to disability can’t arrive at polling district for voting. They have the right to vote at home in advance.

8. Voting in other polling district

On election day a voter can vote in other polling district in his municipality (constituency) without changes in voter lists (a voter is not transferred to other voter list). In this case there are requirements for measures preventing double voting:

• 1. All polling districts must be on-line and keep access to the electronic voter list of The Republic of Lithuania.

• 2. Polling district committee must certify the fact that voter has not voted in this polling district and indicate in voters list the name of the polling district where voter arrives to vote and in case the voter’s vote will be received by post, it will not be counted.

• Checking voted voters on electronic voter lists will enable to gather statistical data such as when and which voters’ group attend polling station, vote in advance etc.

• In by-elections 2009 we collected such data in 4 polling district and found out that young voters are not active (perhaps they are abroad).

9. Developing voters list experience

• Previous voter list were designed by vertical principle from the bottom to the top. The voter list of the Republic of Lithuania was not centralized but consisted of territorial voter lists.

• Voters registration was made according domestic books. There occurred mistakes in surnames. Voter’ list improvement was impossible in this scheme.

• Today voter list designing is carried on contrary to the previously used principle - from the top to bottom. All voters are distributed among polling districts according to their declared address of residence and The register of the polling district addresses.

• In order to have the correct register of polling districts’ addresses, address must be assign to only one polling district and there shouldn’t be any address that is not assigned to any polling district. Due to inaccurate register of addresses, it was a lot of manual work for electoral committees to distribute all voters.

• Today the boundaries of polling districts are stable. Changes are made when new settlements are built, to ensure better voters’ access to polling district.

• Present voter lists are accurate enough, unless voter does not live by the address he declared officially. Voter, who has officially declared his place of residence, can change his polling district until 6 pm on election day.

10. Some more details on developing voter list

9.1. The principle of voter registration is the data of Residents Register citizenship or permanent residency, declaration of place of residents

Every citizen (permanent resident) can declare place of residence at ward. (Residential areas are serviced by wards). There are 600 wards at all. Wards notify data of residents’ declaration to The Register of Residents on-line. The officially declared address could not be cancelled only changed in to new declare one. The exceptions are proprietary request or departure abroad. The ‘temporal registration’ or ‘temporal address’ is impossible. In case person resides at hospital, military service, or at prison his officially declared address remain the same

9.2. Revising of voter list of polling district

• Voters in voter list are registered according their officially declared their address. Therefore voter who is not declared officially his place of residence must on his own initiative to address to the polling district electoral committee.

• Polling districts committees receives voters’ applications for register them to voter list, considers them reasoned and report their decision to constituency electoral committee. After constituency electoral committee has been made changes in voter list’ electronic data base only then polling station electoral committee makes changes in printed voter list and issues voter’s certificate to voter.

• Constituency electoral committee has computer-aided workplaces at administrations of municipality.

9.3. Lists of polling districts

• Territory of municipality is divided in to polling districts. The list of polling district is unique in each municipality, not in constituency. The list of polling districts of constituency may consists of several municipalities polling districts. There are 60 municipalities in Lithuania. In Parliamentary elections there are formed 71 constituencies.

• With a view of making it more convenient for a voter to reach a polling station and with account of the number of voters, the territories of cities and regions shall be divided into polling districts. There are about 2030 polling districts.

• The Central Electoral Commission on the recommendation of the director of the municipal administration may change the division of the municipality: to make a new or quash polling districts, to change the boundaries of the polling districts.

10. Problems

• The inaccuracy of electoral rolls may be because: - citizens of the Republic of Lithuania who are staying

abroad (about 25 pc);- a person who declared his place of residence which is

not his real place of residence;- the less part of complaints are because of the address in

the voter lists. It is an old problem than the migration of citizens weren’t administer automatically in territorial migration divisions.

• e-voting can help to solve the migration of the citizens problems.

• Thank you for attention!

• Questions..

Zenonas Vaigauskas

Chairman of The Central Electoral Commission

of the Republic of Lithuania

+370 5 2396961

+370 698 42282

zevaig@vrk.lt