Analysis of the effect of active registration on the Bulgarian electoral system

To participate in elections, you must register in advance. This is recommended by the Bulgarian Libertarian Society in a special report prepared by Kaloyan Pravov. It examines the main problems of the Bulgarian electoral process such as controlled voting, electoral tourism, dead souls on the lists and the potential for manipulation of the real electoral vote through them

The publication contains an overview of the context of the main problems facing the electoral system, as well as a detailed description of our proposal for active registration. The effectiveness of our proposed reform in ensuring the legitimacy of the electoral process is subjected to a serious analysis by the author, as is the main motives against our proposal, in order to have a balance.

The main theses in Kaloyan Pravov's report can be summarized as follows:

• The debate on electoral reform is one of the cornerstones of contemporary political life in Bulgaria.
• In recent years, a series of experimental reforms without vision have brought trust in the electoral process to critically low levels. Although citizens are not well informed about the real reasons for the poor functioning of the electoral system, low trust in it poses a systemic threat to democracy.
• A meaningful and profound electoral reform should include three elements – finding consensus among the main political forces, clearing up the systemic problems of the electoral process, empirically identified by experts, and addressing citizens' concerns about the system's deficiencies.
• Active registration and the cleaning of voter lists are fertile ground for building a package of reforms that meet the above-mentioned criteria.
• Based on this, we propose the introduction of active registration for all voters in combination with dynamic voter lists, which would be compiled anew before each election and deleted 30 days after the final announcement of the results.
• Such a reform would increase the cost of electoral trade by 30% and electoral tourism by 100%. In addition, it would optimize the use of public resources in connection with the organization of elections and guarantee the security and integrity of voter lists.
• The effect of introducing these measures would be a net increase in voter turnout due to higher trust in the electoral process and ensuring the security and integrity of Bulgarian democracy in the face of increasing external threats.
• The main arguments against the introduction of active registration – that it would reduce voter turnout and deprive some citizens of the opportunity to exercise their voting rights – are not confirmed by the scientific literature in the USA – a country with many years of experience in implementing such systems.
• Considering the consequences of the introduction of the proposed measures on the remaining elements of the electoral system, we could conclude that the BLO proposals are compatible with most current proposals for electoral reform, including the introduction of a majoritarian electoral system. The only exception is the introduction of compulsory voting, which completely eliminates the point of active registration with dynamic voter lists.

A copy of this report has been sent to each member of the Legal Affairs Committee of the 44th National Assembly, and you can read it here.

Text file.

Power point presentation.

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