144. Fourth, electoral challenges regarding voter registration, the registration
and accountability of political parties, the registration and announcement of
candidacies, and election campaigns are common. Some countries entrust
the final decision on all types of electoral challenge to the same body; for
example, many assign such authority to constitutional courts or specialized
electoral courts. In other countries, however, these challenges are dealt with
by an administrative body, the EMB, or a judicial body, the identity of which
can provide a good idea of the operation of the EDRS concerned.
145. Fifth, an EDRS is generally made up of various types of challenge
mechanism, which could be administrative, judicial or, in some cases,
legislative. Accordingly, EDRBs may be administrative, judicial or legislative
in type even though, for the purposes of this Handbook, in classifying them
attention is paid only to the legal nature of the body that issues the final decision
on legislative elections.
146. The classification is based on the legal nature of the body competent to
make the final ruling on the last challenge provided for against the election
results, even if it is almost never used. The competent organ to make the
final ruling on national legislative elections in the United States is the House
of Representatives or the Senate for the election of their own members, or
the whole of Congress for presidential elections; a concurrent majority vote
of both the House of Representatives and the Senate is required in order to
overturn a decision on this matter reached by a state. This has not happened
since the 1876 presidential election. The most that has happened is that a
challenge has been brought before the Supreme Court. In the case of national
legislative elections, there have been very few cases brought before the House
of Representatives or the Senate. Nonetheless, in the light of the criterion
adopted, the US EDRS falls into the category of those conferred on a
legislative organ, and not among those entrusted to a judicial body.
61
5. A general classification of EDR systems
143. Third, the final resolution of electoral challenges on some matters (for
example, oversight of where the resources of political parties come from and
how they are used) may be entrusted to a body which is not the one with
jurisdiction to issue the final decision on the validity of an election and the
declaration that a certain person has been elected. In Italy, the final decision
on the validity of an election and the assignment of seats in the legislature
lies with the national Chamber of Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) or the
Senate (Senato), as the case may be, after any challenge to the election
results has been resolved by the National Central Electoral Office (Direzione
Centrale dei servizi elettorali), which is part of the Court of Cassation (Corte
Suprema di Cassazione). However, the final decision on challenges related to
overseeing the political parties’ resources lies with the Court of Audit (Corte
dei Conti). In this Handbook, Italy is classified as having an EDRS entrusted
to legislative organs rather than to autonomous administrative courts.