The solution is to extend the registration period to allow for larger numbers of registrants as the election approaches. This may include provisions for voting day registration. Registration is costly, requiring the payment of fees, for example, for items such as voter identification cards. Efforts can be made to ensure that, wherever possible, costs of voter registration are not passed on the to citizen. Otherwise, the relatively poor will be administratively disenfranchised to a greater extent than the relatively affluent.
Registration is time-consuming.
Citizens sometimes are required to travel considerable distances to register to vote, losing time at work and incurring personal travel costs. The solution may be simply to increase the number of registration locations, including the use of mobile voter registration centres. Administrative Exclusion in Cameroon For its 1997 legislative election, Cameroon had counted 6,020,000 eligible voters, but only 3,719,774 of them had registered to vote, for an overall registration rate of 64.5 percent. There were allegations, for example, of discriminatory registration practices which made registration more difficult for members of certain ethnic communities. One common method of exclusion was to impose more rigorous requirements on some voters than on others for proof of citizenship.