When voter turnout rates are extremely low or high, they are not always an indication of less or more interest in politics. This is stated by the Electoral Observation Mission in the report on the process of registration of identification cards with a view to the territorial elections.
The report explains that, for example, voter turnout rates that are too high can reveal patronage practices and vote rigging. In turn, excessively low voter participation rates can be a sign of threats to the voter to prevent them from voting.
“A possible explanation for the low or high number of ID registration is the number of people who come to reside in the municipality and, therefore, register their ID in a new polling station,” says the MOE.
The results of the analysis, indeed, suggest that the greater the number of people who migrate from other municipalities, the higher the rate of registration of identification cards to vote is also higher. In the same way, municipalities with very few arrivals of new residents present lower registration rates for identity cards.
However, there are some exceptions. Some municipalities, despite having a high percentage of people recently residing in the municipality, maintain very low ID registration rates.
“Again, due to their low registration of identification cards, the cases of these municipalities should draw the attention of the authorities to study the reason for the low number of people registering their identification cards, and if it is the case, do some type of pedagogy, in the framework of the registration processes, to inform citizens of the importance of registering the identity card”, the report indicates.
The opposite is the case in some municipalities that, despite the fact that migration is very low, have very high rates of registration of identification cards. These should also be analyzed to prevent any electoral irregularities from occurring, the body suggests.
Identification deficit
The identification deficit and the difficulty of accessing polling stations may cause some municipalities to have a very low number of people registering their identity cards.
For this reason, the MOE reveals that one way to measure this identification deficit and difficulty of access to polling stations is by using the difference between the number of people residing in the municipality according to DANE and the number of people registered in the electoral census.
“A very high positive number, that is, the DANE census being much higher than the electoral census, suggests that many people do not have an identity card and if they do have it, it has been difficult for them to register it to vote. (for example, due to distances), so they do not appear in the electoral roll”.
The results suggest that the municipalities with the highest identification deficit and difficulty in accessing polling stations have lower identification card registration rates.
some figures
Before the end of 2022, a total of 42,306 people within Colombia have accessed this process granted by electoral regulations and given that there is a population projected by DANE in 2023 of 37,927,237 adults, this gives a rate of registrations of 1.12 per thousand inhabitants nationwide.
EThis number of registrations is 167% lower, compared to those registered during the same moment for the 2019 elections, in which, during the first month, a total of 112,994 citizens changed their polling station.
At the departmental level, the MOE highlights cases with high registration rates such as Meta, the highest rate at the national level with 5.17 registered for every thousand inhabitants (more than 4.63 times the national rate). In second place is the department of Chocó, with a rate of 3.79 registered for every thousand inhabitants, which means that it is 3.4 times the national rate.
Regarding municipalities, the cases of Puerto Gaitán and Cabuyaro (Meta) draw attention, since it is not the first time that they have been highlighted by the MOE in this analysis, since for previous electoral processes, both National Elections and Authorities Locals, have generated alerts due to their high registration of IDs.