Importance of the Electoral Roll

In a democratic state in which the right to active suffrage is recognized, the electoral roll is essential, since it is a tool to count and leave a record of those who can and have voted in the elections or in other types of voting that require the voice of the people.

The electoral register or census is therefore a democratic guarantee, since thanks to this list or database, votes can be effectively counted. Thus, the register would guarantee that each voter casts a single vote in the elections without being able to vote more than once at the polls.

To the question of whether everyone can appear on the electoral roll, the truth is that it will depend on each country; and it is that each of the countries has different rules when it comes to letting their citizens vote or not.

We can say that the norm in a democratic state is that any person of legal age and in full mental faculties can cast a vote. Likewise, it is necessary to remember that this right has not always been equally universal, since women did not have this right until quite recently. Let us remember that the first time that women's suffrage was authorized was by mistake in 1776 in New Jersey and that the first approved women's suffrage was on Pitcairn Island in 1838. Also in Spain, women's suffrage was not recognized until the

Constitution of 1931, being in 1933 the first time they were able to exercise their right to vote.

Returning to the electoral roll, it should be noted that this type of registration would avoid electoral fraud such as the old and well-known Pucherazo. This fraudulent practice managed to introduce more votes than they actually had, even using the name of people already deceased.

Taking this into account, it is normal for the electoral roll to be quite rigorous. During an election, different ballot boxes and various tables controlling said ballot boxes are placed in the different polling stations set up for voting.

At these tables we find people, chosen from among all the population registered in that locality, who will be in charge of requesting one by one the DNI or document of identification to corroborate that they actually appear on the list. If that name is not on the list, the person will not be able to vote.

Therefore, we can understand that without this electoral register, voting in an election would be completely chaotic, since we could not count goals not to mention real percentages.