West Kent Poll Book 1859
Poll Books 1694-1872 Returning Officers were required from 1696 to compile a list of voters and how they voted. This was to prevent irregularities in parliamentary elections by biased returning officers. The electorate was limited to freeholders so was quite small at this time. Soon after, the poll books were produced commercially so many copies were available up until 1872 when the free vote came in. The parliamentary poll books for boroughs often contained only a dozen or so names, and may have been published in the local newspaper instead of a booklet. Most poll books are for parliamentary elections but some were published for elections of county coroners. Typically a poll book had a preface with something about the candidates and their opinions, so you may learn about your ancestors’ political leanings. The lists of voters are arranged by hundred and then in alphabetical order of parish and vary in the amount of information that they give about voters. Some have only the names and who they voted for, whilst others have addresses and occupations of the voters, and what freehold land they held in order to qualify. The front page of the poll book gave the poll results, and there may be notations in the lists of those who were absent, neutral, removed (moved away) or deceased. The candidates’ names may appear as abbreviations or initials only at the head of the columns, and the two votes allowed each voter may be marked with a forward slash in the originals but by a horizontal line in printed editions. Some copies have been used by canvassers for the next election who added notations about the voters. Viewable on any computer (PC and Mac) using Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is one of a range of old and rare books scanned by The Genealogy Store
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