the right of citizens to seek political or public office, individually or as representatives of political parties or organizations, without discrimination”. Regrettably, this commitment is not fully respected or is violated in a number of States, where the legal framework excludes “nonpartisan” candidates or prohibits the candidacy of individuals based on religious One of the main problems encountered in a numaffiliation, employment, or economic or ber of countries is that administrative rules are used to social status. Similarly, requirements for keep specific candidates off the ballot, or to de-regisballot access or mandate allocation are ter candidates during the campaign (or threaten to do being created that have a disproportion- so). Signature verification procedures are widely used al and discriminatory impact on some in certain States to limit participation; in some cases, the method for verifying signatures is used to disqualcandidates or political parties. It is the ify candidates based on a percentage of “fraudulent” practice in some States to prohibit overt signatures rather than seeking a qualifying number of discrimination against candidates and po- valid signatures. Signature verification is rarely accessilitical parties, but to implement legal pro- ble for oversight by representatives of contestants and visions that result in de facto discrimina- other observers. tion against candidates and political parties from certain societal groups. Ballot access for a particular election is usually granted when a political party, coalition, bloc, or independent candidate meets one of the following requirements: (1) payment of a monetary deposit, refundable upon receiving a certain number or percentage of votes; (2) collection of a minimum number of signatures of registered voters; or (3) allocation of a mandate or obtaining a minimum percentage of the votes in the last election. Regardless of the procedures available, registration should not be tied to irrelevant or overly burdensome requirements unrelated to the issue of whether a political party or independent candidate has sufficient support to be placed on the ballot. Monetary deposits should be of a sufficient amount to discourage frivolous political parties and candidates but should not be so high as to prevent them from obtaining ballot access. In addition, monetary deposits should be refundable upon receiving a certain number or percentage of votes. The threshold required for a refund should be realistic. 31. Compilation of accurate voter lists In Paragraph 6 of the Copenhagen Document, the participating States declare “that the will of the people, freely and fairly expressed through periodic and genuine elections, is the basis of the authority and legitimacy of all government”. From the individual’s right to vote follows a duty of participating States to guarantee effective exercise of that right, including through the registration of voters. A problem in the OSCE region is the persistent denial of suffrage by accident or by design due to inadequate provisions for the registration of voters and accuracy of lists of voters. While the right to vote can be artificially and unduly restricted if a person is omitted from the voters list or if inaccuracy in the list makes fraudulent voting easier, voters also have a responsibility to play an active role in the voter registration process, and to respond to official registration procedures, whether they are passive or active ones. Voter lists should be updated, accurate, complete, and easily accessible for inspection by qualified voters and electoral contestants with a legitimate reason to access them. A procedure must be in place to provide for the proper registration of a voter who has been or can be unduly omitted from the list, whose details are recorded incorrectly, or who has reached the legal age for registration after publication of the list. Likewise, procedures must be in place Common Responsibility: Commitments and Implementation