39. In their first Joint Opinion of 2016, the Venice Commission and ODIHR recommended reviewing a similar provision in order to ensure data protection and secrecy of the vote.32 In their most recent Joint Opinion, of 2021, based on the consensus observed on the matter and the necessity to increase trust in voter registers in Armenia, the Venice Commission and the ODIHR acknowledged that publishing the signed voter lists could participate in the overall transparency of the electoral process, provided that this measure remained strictly temporary and preferably limited to the next elections. The ODIHR Final Report on the 2021 early parliamentary elections recommended “safeguarding voter data privacy and secrecy of participation in the vote, including through confidentiality measures”.33 In line with their previous recommendations, the Venice Commission and ODIHR recommend reconsidering the current and new draft provisions of Article 13 in the light of international standards and best practice on personal data protection. The publication of the list of the voters who actually participated in the elections should be avoided. Other mechanisms to prevent voting on behalf of other voters can be used instead of publication of the list of persons having voted, such as unimpeded access of observers to the polling stations, carefully managing the verification of voters in the polling station, keeping the ballot box visible at all times, having representatives from different political parties present in the polling station etc. These are some mechanisms that can help to avoid voter harassment based on their participation in the elections. Furthermore, as concerns the publication of voter lists before elections, other solutions, which protect voters’ personal data in a better way, should be considered. To allow for sufficient scrutiny of the voter list while still safeguarding the personal data of voters and preventing the misuse of such data for campaign or other unlawful purposes, States have taken a variety of approaches. For example, some States give access to the voter lists only to electoral contestants and under strict supervision and conditions regarding the use, copying and storing of the lists. Other States only give voters access to their own data on the voter lists or remove more sensitive personal data from the lists available for public scrutiny.