At 20:48 01/01/2007 +0000, Brian Read wrote:
>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 youth as a local government officer (with two county councils in the
1960s) the electoral roll was drawn up by the county council, not by the
UDCs, RDCs and so forth. It was done by a small group of people, employed
full time on the job.
When an election came round, voting cards had to be sent out to every one
on the rolls; and this was done by county council staff, on a voluntary
basis, working from home, for a fixed fee.
It ought not to be difficult to check the Representation of the People Act
to see what was supposed to happen and whether county council's could
delegate the work to district councils - after all, old men forget.
Frank Sharman
Wolverhampton
01902 763246
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