The retention requirements of Section 20701 are aimed specifically at election administrators. In a parochial sense, these laws place criminally sanctionable duties on election officials. However, in a broader sense, this federal retention law assists election administrators in performing the tasks of managing elections and determining winners of elective contests. It does this by requiring election managers to focus appropriate attention on the types of election records under their supervision and control that may be needed to resolve challenges to the election process, and by requiring that they take appropriate steps to ensure that those records will be preserved intact until such time as they may become needed to resolve legitimate questions that frequently arise involving the election process. (b) The basic requirements of Section 20701 Section 20701 requires that election administrators preserve for twenty-two months “all records and papers” that come into their possession relating to any “application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting.” This retention requirement applies to all elections in which a candidate for federal office was on the ballot, that is, a candidate for the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, President or Vice President of the United States, or presidential elector. Retention and disposition of records in elections with no federal candidate on the ballot (including elections for state and local bond issues, initiatives, referenda and the like) are governed by state law. Section 20701 does not apply to records generated in connection with purely local or state elections. However, Section 20701 does apply to all records generated in connection with the process of registering voters and maintaining current electoral rolls. This is because voter registration in virtually all United States jurisdictions is “unitary” in the sense that a potential voter registers only once to become eligible to vote for both local and federal candidates. See United States v. Cianciulli, 482 F. Supp. 585, 617 (E.D. Pa. 1979). Thus, registration records must be preserved as long as the voter registration to which they pertain is considered an 77