Identification & Elections : Improving Registration, Increasing Access & Maintaining Trust in our Elections

Date of Event: Wednesday, 1st March 2023

Time of Event: 14:00–16:00 (GMT/UTC)

Place of Event: Webinar

Overview

Voter identification is one of the most complex and contested parts of the electoral process. Yet, it remains of crucial importance to ensuring the franchise of all eligible voters, and thus helping a democracy to realise the fundamental principle of “one person, one vote.” This issue though is particularly complicated in countries where no reliable census and identity documents exist.

It is therefore the responsibility of electoral authorities to ensure that voters have the right to vote, but that eligible voters are unimpeded from accessing the ballot paper and are able to easily prove their right to vote in any given election.

Electoral bodies have a range of tools at their disposal to do so, including regular auditing of voter registration rolls, campaigns to ensure voters are accurately registered, and use of innovative technologies to reach more people.

A number of experts have argued that biometrics could provide the required solution. With a growing number of democracies already using biometric technologies, it is becoming more apparent as to what benefits they can offer as well as their limitations and challenges. In most cases this technology is used to de-duplicate the register, but it can also be used to empower citizens and ensure that they can realise their right to vote, particularly in places with traditional identity documents are unreliable.

This webinar will look at how issues of identity in elections can be overcome, how trust and security in electoral processes can be maintained and the prospects of new technologies – such as biometrics – to helping electoral management bodies carry out their functions.

Speakers

Agenda

• Look at what challenges emanate from the need to prove identity
• Examine how electoral authorities can correctly identify eligible voters whilst not disenfranchising sections of the population
• Learn how voter identification and registration overlap, and how without the an effective way of proving identification, accurate and comprehensive registration is difficult
• Discuss how the use of biometrics can help electoral management bodies confirm identity in elections and improve their voter registrations rolls
• Analyse the challenges discriminated groups in particular face on issues of identification and how this can be overcome
• Case studies of countries that have implemented biometric technologies in their electoral process, and an analysis of the impact on voter registration and access to the ballot box.
• Panel discussion featuring experts in the field of voter identification and electoral management, discussing best practices and recommendations for addressing the challenges of voter identification in countries with unreliable census and identity documents.
• Q&A session for attendees to ask questions and engage in further discussion with the presenters and panelists.
• Conclusion and next steps for improving voter registration and increasing access to the ballot box in countries with unreliable census and identity documents.

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