Next Search Identity Documents Produced by Election Management Bodies file info EMBs may issue identity documents or proof of registration documents to registered voters. Technology can be used to automate this process. Voter register databases can be used to generate the data to be printed on an electoral identity document. The card is usually laminated, and can include tamper-evident security devices such as holograms or embedded print to make it difficult to forge or alter the card. Smart cards' incorporating magnetic strips or data chips can also store electronic data about the person who is the subject of the card.
Smart cards can be 'read only' cards that simply contain information about the subject.
Other types of smart cards can be 'read-write' cards which can have the information contained on the card updated as the cards are used. For example, a read-write card used to verify a person's right to vote could, once used, be recorded as having been used for that election, so that it could not be used for voting in that election again. Where smart cards are used in polling places, they could be used to replace current methods of recording that a person has voted. Where a voter uses a smart card at a polling place to verify his or her right to vote, the smart card reader could at the same time record that that person had voted and transmit that data to a central database during or after polling. The provision of smart cards to voters and smart card readers to polling places would be an expensive exercise, so that EMBs would need to judge whether the advantages that could be gained would be worth the expense.