I have no knowledge of the electoral rolls (commonly known as "voters'
lists") for the period you mention but in my youth as a local
government officer I was involved each year in the compilation of such
lists. Lists were compiled by each district authority. In the early
days of the century this would have been the local authorities created
under the Local Government Act, 1894, viz. urban and rural district
councils and borough or city councils (in England & Wales). Some of
these had very small populations compared with the local authorities of
today and consequently a small number of staff. It was mainly these
staff, usually working voluntarily for a fixed fee who compiled the
lists. Some of this work was done at home in their spare time.
In my time the list was always a record of the people eligible to vote
who were normally resident on 10 October. Or rather it should have been
but in my experience a few people failed to complete the form
distributed to each household despite efforts of the staff. This meant
that the occupants did not appear on the printed list.
The opposite to this was the fact that some put fictitious names on the
form. Usually no check was made to detect this so some names on the
printed list were incorrect. At election times you will sometimes see
reports in newspapers about people who have noticed that a pet animal's
name, or children's names, appear on a list. Of course this is because
the occupant would have put those names on their annual form and there
was no evidence to indicate that this was an incorrect entry as the
form was merely authenticated by the signature of the householder.
However, a majority of names on the register were probably correct
partly because the local staff often had detasiled local knowledge so
the registers are generally a useful research tool.
Brian Read
On 1 Jan 2007, at 16:45, Nyra Wilson wrote:
> Please can anyone tell me where I might find background information
> about electoral rolls in the period c1890-1920. e.g. how and by whom
> were they compiled, were entries gathered on a set date each year, are
> there any likely omissions, was inclusion voluntary, how long must a
> man be resident in an area before quilifying as a voter?
>
> I am attempting to use them as part of a project on the development of
> a mining village.I have copied entries for the relevant period but it
> has become obvious that they are not comprehensive - names of of men
> qualified to vote which I have found from other sources do not appear
> on the rolls. Having used census returns for many years I am aware of
> their problems and limitations but electoral rolls are a new source
> for me and I am finding it difficult to locate information about them
> so it would be useful to hear from anyone with experience in using
> them as a research tool.
>
> Nyra Wilson
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