Electoral roll

The electoral roll (also called an electoral register or poll book) is a listing of all those registered to vote in a particular electoral district as part of an electoral system. The main function of an electoral roll is to combat electoral fraud by enabling authorities to verify the identity and entitlement to a vote of applicants, and to streamline voting on election day, and to ensure a person doesn't vote multiple times. In jurisdictions where voting is compulsory, the electoral roll is used to indicate who has failed to vote. They may also be used to select people for jury duty.

Electoral rolls, under various names, are used in, for example, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, but not all jurisdictions require voter registration as a prerequisite for voting, such as in the State of North Dakota in the United States. Most jurisdictions close updating of electoral rolls some period, commonly 14 or 28 days, before an election, but some American jurisdictions allow registration at the same time as attending a polling station to vote, and Australia closes the rolls 7 days after an election is called, rather than with reference to election day.

Traditionally, electoral rolls were maintained in paper form, either as loose-leaf folders or in printed pages, but nowadays electronic electoral rolls are increasingly being adopted.

A permanent Commonwealth electoral roll, first compiled in 1908 and now maintained by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), is used for federal elections and referendums. It also forms the basis of state (except in Western Australia, which compiles its own) and local electoral rolls.

Enrolment has been compulsory for all eligible voters since 1911 (with the exception of Norfolk Island, where enrolment is voluntary). Eligible voters are Australian citizens over the age of 18 years. Residents in Australia who had been enrolled as British subjects in 1984, though not Australian citizens, can continue to be enrolled. (These comprise about 9% of the electoral roll.) Since 2009, New South Wales has drawn information from various government departmental sources to automatically enroll eligible electors onto the state roll, but not the federal roll.

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