Electoral-Management-Reference-Model-v.1.0

Official Agent – A person appointed by a candidate to serve as their representative during an
election. A person can be appointed as both the financial agent and the official agent of the same
candidate. Used in B.C.
Official list – See revised list.
On-demand event – An unscheduled electoral event, such as a by-election or general election
that is not triggered by a fixed date.
Over-coverage – A situation that exists when coverage equals more than 100 percent because
the number of registered electors exceeds the number of eligible electors in a particular
geographical area or demographic sub-set of electors.
Permanent register – A register of electors that is maintained and updated throughout the
business cycle. A permanent register is also called a continuous list.
Physical address – A point on the ground where a residential or non-residential building exists.
There may be one or more dwelling units where individuals reside associated with a single
physical address.
Provided address – An address provided for the purposes of elector registration by an elector or
a secondary source. Provided addresses may take many forms, and will not always conform to
an electoral agency’s address register. For example, electors may only provide a mailing
address. The goal is to collect enough information to be able to geo-code the address and
communicate with the elector.
Political entities – Individuals or organizations that participate in events by: running for office,
promoting the election of particular candidates, and/or raising awareness about issues of public
concern and trying to influence public opinion.
Political party – An organization that has as a primary purpose the fielding of candidates for
election to the Parliament or provincial or territorial Legislature.
Poll Clerk (PC) – The election official who works as part of a team with a Deputy Returning
Officer to administer voting and counting. The PC is responsible for maintaining the voting
book and marking electors off the list as they vote. Also called a Voting Clerk.
Polling division (PD) – Each electoral district is divided into smaller geographic areas, called
polling divisions, each of which is organized to take the votes of the electors who live within its
boundaries. Polling division boundaries are created by the electoral agency.
Polling place – A place, usually part of a building, where electors attend to vote (e.g., a school
gymnasium, a meeting room in a town hall or recreation centre, etc.).
Polling station – Within a polling place, a polling station is established to serve electors from a
polling division. The election officials at a polling station use a list of electors for the
corresponding polling division and mark or cross out electors’ names as they vote.
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April 9, 2010