===================================================================== GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ." "Making Your Ancestor's Vote Count" ===================================================================== One of the privileges of citizenship in the United States and elsewhere is being able to cast one's ballot in an election. Exercising the right to vote affords a person the opportunity to influence the outcome or express something. In a formal election, a citizen may exercise a choice in determining the future direction of a government or direct some action to be taken through a pro or con ballot on a referendum. In order to participate in this process, a person must register to vote. This typically involves completing an application form or registering in some formal, official way and confirming one's identity. From a genealogical research perspective, the records generated by the voter registration process are important tools for a variety of reasons, In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, let's explore these often overlooked records, their potential content, where you might find those of your ancestors, and what value they have in your research strategy. EXAMINING THE HISTORY OF THE VOTE IN THE UNITED STATES Voting is a privilege of citizenship in the United States. Aliens who have not been naturalized are ineligible to vote, although there are documented cases where some may have unwittingly (or even knowingly) have voted and poll officials may not have caught the irregularity. The right to vote may also be denied to persons convicted of certain crimes. While not everyone who is eligible to register for the vote does so, and not everyone who is registered participates and casts his or her ballot in an election, there are indeed voter registration records, which may extend quite far back in time. It is important to understand the history of voting in the United States in order to determine whether your ancestor may or may not have been eligible to register to vote. The framers of the U.S. Constitution made provisions for the election of the President, Vice- President, Senators and Representative. Initially the privilege of voting was the province of white males twenty-one years of age and older who were born in this country or who had become naturalized citizens. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Congress on 26 February 1869 and ratified 3 February 1870, changed the law to state that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" and gave Congress the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Therefore, now African Americans males could exercise the vote. The 19th Amendment, which finally gave women the right to vote, was passed by Congress on 4 June 1919 and ratified on 18 August 1920. The change stated that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Although Native Americans were given a number of citizenship rights through treaty provisions and under special statutes, it was not until passage of the Snyder Act of 1924 that Native Americans born in the U.S. were granted full citizenship and the right to vote. (See http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/election/voters9.html and http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_citizens_1.html ) for additional details.) Still, some states barred their participation in elections. It was between 1948 and 1962 that these states' laws were finally changed or overturned by the courts and all Native Americans were finally allowed to vote. The 24th Amendment, passed by Congress on 27 August 1962 and ratified 23 January 1964 outlawed that the right to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax." The 26th Amendment, passed by Congress on 23 March 1971 and ratified on 1 July 1971 stated that, "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age." Congress was afforded the power to enforce each of these articles by appropriate legislation. (For complete information, images, and text versions of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Amendments to the Constitution, you can visit the NARA "Charters of Freedom" website at: http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/charters_of_freedom/charters_of_freedom.html ) WHAT INFORMATION IS REQUIRED? Take a few minutes to locate your own voter registration identification card, and study the information on it. In order to register to vote, you may have completed a specific registration card. In some states, a person is registered to vote as a result of his or her motor vehicle registration or the issuance/renewal of a driver's license. These so-called "motor-voter" registrations eliminate the need for making separate application to register to vote and are a quite recent governmental development. Our ancestors from earlier times, therefore, were not subject to this automatic registration and had to make application to vote. The customary information that is required in order to register to vote includes the following: --- Name. The applicant must provide his or her name and may well have had to present some evidence of identity. (That had become a requirement in more recent times.) --- Date of birth. The applicant must supply proof of the date of birth or age, and sometimes the place of birth is requested on the registration document. --- Address. The applicant must supply his or her address, and may have to provide evidence of this. --- Length of residence. Most areas have laws, which dictate that, in order to participate in an election, the voter must have lived in the voting ward, precinct, parish, for a specified period of time. --- Proof of citizenship. If a person was not a native born citizen, he or she had to indicate (and usually provide proof of) the date and place of their naturalization. --- Signature of the applicant Other information and/or proofs may have been required in various places at various times, but these are the most important, salient facts. These might include the telephone number, political party affiliation (for purposes of voting in primaries), marital status, occupation, physical description, homeowner or renter, and potentially other information. As you can see, there may be information of significant genealogical value to the information provided on the voter registration form. WHERE CAN I FIND VOTER REGISTRATION RECORDS? Voter registration records are generally open to public inspection. The county or city in which the individual resides (or resided) has jurisdiction over these records. There may also have been indexes prepared for convenience in conducting reference work in the administrative office and for ease of transport to polling places for on-site verification of voter registration and status. Copies of the indices may also have been provided to the secretary of state's office. The retention of original voter registration cards or forms varies from place to place, even within the same state. The secretary of state's office usually issues guidelines to the counties and municipalities for the retention or destruction of various records, but implementation of the recommendations can be found to vary. Some offices have retained all of the records, keeping the most current ones on-site and archiving older records off-premises, perhaps in a county records retention facility. Other offices may have already purged or destroyed the original records, retaining only the indices or reports because they occupy less space. Still other offices may have microfilmed the original records before purging them, and may retain both the microfilm/microfiche and printed lists. Requests to obtain copies of the records may vary as well. Some offices may accept a request by telephone, while others may require a written request. Still others may not release a copy of the record without more stringent identification and explanation for your need to request the copy, and I've even heard a report that one courthouse would only provide a copy if you requested it in person. Since voter registration cards are considered an important form of identification, government offices are understandably cautious in releasing copies of the information. HOW CAN VOTER REGISTRATION RECORDS HELP WITH YOUR RESEARCH? Voter registration records can play a very significant part in your research. First and foremost, they can provide evidence of residence in a specific place of residence in between the decennial Federal censuses. Coupled with the use of city directories and, in some cases, jury lists (which often are derived from lists of registered voters), voter registrations can establish or corroborate the presence of a person in a certain place at a specific time. It is not unusual, then, for voter registration lists to be used as census substitutes. Voter records can point to a specific residence and, if the person was a homeowner, to land and property records, real estate/property tax records, homestead records, and a variety of other related records. There may still be insurance records in existence for the property. And if the person owned property, it is probable that there will be a will and probate packet for his or her estate (and/or records in the probate court minutes). Establishing a place of residence using voter registration records can also be used to translate the person's address into a census enumeration district, beginning with the 1880 Federal Census, using the enumeration district maps or descriptions. This can be a critical timesaver in working with multiple decades' census records, making it quicker to locate your relatives in the census. Another benefit of establishing the place of residence is that you can then place your ancestor in geographical and social context with his or her neighbors. It is also possible that other family members live close by. (On several occasions, I've sidestepped a brick wall to research one of my ancestor's siblings and, by following the sibling, located the information or another link to take me beyond the impasse. Voter registration records have twice been the key to other records for me.) A crucial research key to an immigrant ancestor's origins is the identification of the year of naturalization. If your ancestor was an immigrant, he or she would have had to become a naturalized citizen in order to vote. If the person's date of naturalization, date of birth, and birthplace are included in the voter registration records, you are well on your way to locating the naturalization. By extension, once you have the naturalization documents, you will have important clues back to the ship's manifest and possibly a direct pointer to the native land and hometown. (Remember, though, that there are exceptions to the naturalization process. A close friend recently reexamined the 1920 Federal census population schedule for Newark, New Jersey, for his widowed Jewish great-grandmother. He found that she stated her year of immigration into the U.S. as 1888 and the year of naturalization as 1888. What? No waiting period between the declaration of intent and the naturalization oath? A check of naturalization law shows that between 1855 and 1922, an alien woman automatically became a citizen if she married an American citizen.) MAKE YOUR ANCESTOR'S VOTE COUNT! By now it should be obvious that voter registration records are more than a little interesting and important. You can derive a great of discrete information about your ancestor, as well as clues and pointers to other evidentiary sources. If your ancestor was a citizen, registered to vote, and exercised that privilege, the chances are that there are some records somewhere to help corroborate his or her presence and activities in the community. Make your ancestor's vote count in your family history. Explore the options and elect to research the voter registration records. Happy hunting! George Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Ancestor Daily News