Voter registers and poll books

Registers and poll books

A register is made before an election: officials enter each person who qualifies, often with details that prove the right to vote, such as age, residence, and citizenship. A poll book is made on election day: as each voter arrives, the clerk writes the name down. Registers tell you more about the person. Poll books tell you the person was there, on that day, in that district.

Because the rules for voting were set mainly by the states, records differ widely in what they contain and how long they were kept. The Texas State Library notes that routine voter registration is a county function, so registration lists may also be found among county records.

Who appears, and who does not

For much of American history, most voters were men 21 and older, and the right to vote was limited in other ways that changed over time and from state to state. The 1870 federal census even had a column marking male citizens whose right to vote had been denied or abridged.

Women begin to appear as voters at different times. The National Archives notes that nine western states had adopted woman suffrage by 1912 and New York did so in 1917. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, and certified on August 26, 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Registers made after that date can include wives, widows, and daughters who appear in few other records under their own names.

In the former Confederate states, the registrations of 1867 under the Reconstruction Acts include Black men as voters, in Virginia voting for the first time. They can place an African American ancestor in a specific place soon after the Civil War, and they are described in the next section.

The Reconstruction registrations of 1867

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 required the former Confederate states to call conventions to write new state constitutions. In Virginia, the commander of Military District No. 1 registered male citizens 21 and older and supervised the election on whether to hold a convention. Registers and poll books from these elections survive in some state archives.

In Virginia, African American men voted for the first time on October 22, 1867. The Library of Virginia reports that more than 93,000 African American men took part, and each voter's name was written in the poll book for his district, with separate lists for white and African American voters. These books can place an ancestor in a particular district just after the Civil War and before the 1870 census. Most give only names, but the Mathews County books also give each voter's age, occupation, and birthplace. Poll books do not survive for every locality.

In Texas, the voter registration lists compiled between 1867 and 1870 record qualified voters county by county, in the order the men came in to register. An entry may give the name, residence, precinct, length of residence in the state, county, and precinct, the native state or country, and, for a naturalized voter, how, when, and where he became a citizen. Black voters are marked colored or col. in the remarks column. The Texas State Library calls these ledgers the only comprehensive listing of eligible voters in its state archives.

County registers and great registers

Outside these special collections, look for registers kept by the county clerk, the county recorder, or a city election board. In California, county voter registers were called great registers, and the California State Archives holds great registers for some counties, mostly as microfilm copies, alongside naturalization, probate, and other county records. It also advises researchers to contact the county clerk or recorder where the record was made.

Where a county kept registers over many years, one person may appear in several. Comparing them can show when a family moved within a city, when a son came of age, or when a man disappears, which may point to a death or a move.

Clues to naturalization

Some registers that ask about birthplace also ask about naturalization. The Texas lists, for example, have a place to record how, when, and where a naturalized voter became a citizen. A court and date in a voter register can lead you straight to the naturalization papers. Treat the date as a lead and confirm it in the court's own records, since the register is only a clerk's note of what the voter said or showed.