Voter Directory and Election-register Guide

1. Two levels of voter data

VoterIdentity is the reusable association member record. ElectionEligibility is the person’s status for one election. Never infer that a directory member is eligible for every election.

2. Register sources

The register may begin from:

• the association directory;
• a previous election register;
• CSV/XLSX import; or
• an empty register.

A copied prior register becomes a new draft and must be reviewed and certified again.

3. Manual data

Record staff/member number, official name, contact channels, institution, branch/campus, department/unit, membership category, constituency and active state. Staff number is sensitive identifying data and is used through a keyed hash for lookup.

4. Import

Use the exact headers documented in IMPORT_AND_BULK_UPLOAD_GUIDE.md. Review duplicates and errors before commit. Preserve leading zeros by formatting identifiers as text.

5. Eligibility review

Set Eligible, Ineligible or Excluded and record the reason. Only active identities with Eligible status may vote. Verification notes should contain evidence references, not credentials or ballot choices.

6. Certification

The certification action requires an official reference of at least five characters. It stores certifier, date and a keyed digest of identity/status rows. Any later change causes verification to fail and requires recertification.

7. Opening and freeze

Opening verifies the certified digest and stores an eligible-register snapshot in election settings. Tallying verifies the frozen snapshot. An unexplained change after opening stops tallying for investigation.

8. Participation marker

After ballot submission, the eligibility record is marked as having voted. It does not store the voter’s choices. Do not add a manual voter-to-ballot link.

9. Officer eligibility

Election appointments and voter eligibility are independent. Officers need not be in the register; eligible officers are not automatically excluded.

10. Corrections

Before voting, correct data through the supported forms and recertify. After voting opens, do not edit the register. Record an incident and follow the authorised exceptional process.

11. Register audit checklist

• source and date recorded;
• total rows reconcile with approved source;
• duplicates resolved;
• excluded/ineligible reasons complete;
• contact fields verified for enabled methods;
• active eligible count greater than zero;
• certification reference and digest recorded;
• backup completed before opening.