Greece’s electoral rolls in disarray
Interior Ministry begins task of clearing up thousands of outdated and duplicate registrations
Greece’s electoral rolls are posing a significant challenge, with outdated and inaccurate information creating a chaotic situation that points to the country’s worst administrative shortcomings.
For the first time, the Interior Ministry is taking concerted action to clean up these lists – and it is making some startling revelations in the process.
Specifically, more than 10,000 registered voters are listed as being born in 1908, making them 116 years old, while more than 1,500 duplicate registrations have been identified. This effort aims to provide a clearer picture of the electorate and ensure more accurate conclusions about voter turnout and abstention rates.
The clean-up is critical to maintaining the integrity of the democratic process, since incorrect electoral lists can lead to inaccurate political interpretations, particularly about voter turnout.
According to recent data, Greece’s electoral authority has 9.76 million registered voters, although the number of voters over 80 is known to be greatly overstated compared to reality. Along with the unusual number of centenarians on the lists, approximately 1,300 persons have registered to vote in different places.
Several variables have influenced this circumstance. Many of these outdated records refer to Greeks whose death overseas was never announced to the consular authorities. Moreover, prior to the implementation of the Citizen Registry system, there was no centralized database, which meant that when voters moved towns, their previous registration was not instantly removed. Furthermore, some municipalities deliberately avoided removing voters from their records to avoid being consolidated with neighboring municipalities during administrative reforms.
The ministry’s clean-up will follow legal guidelines, with voters born before 1944, those who haven’t filed tax returns in recent years, and those not receiving pensions or holding valid passports facing potential deletion. However, individuals in these categories can request to remain on the rolls via online platforms or in person at consular offices. If no action is taken, they will be permanently removed from the lists on January 1, 2025.
An example of the scale of this issue is that in July, the Interior Ministry sent a list of 1,145,000 voters over the age of 80 to the tax authorities. Of these, around 445,000 had not submitted tax returns, putting them at risk of deletion.
