Illinois Voting Records



To make it easier for election officials, voting registers were often arranged alphabetically by the names of citizens eligible to vote. In addition to the name and address of the voter, these may contain naturalization information and date and place of birth. There was no poll tax on persons eligible to vote in Illinois.

Researching Illinois Voting Records
It is usually best to start searching for voting records (registers, poll lists, poll books, or electoral records) at a local level such as the city, town, or village and then try the county or state. Links to county pages appear below. Many are also found at IRAD depositories.

Additional resources for Illinois voting records may be found in the topic page of the FamilySearch Catalog. Copies of records on FHL microfilm and microfiche can be ordered for viewing at Family History Centers. Also find Illinois voting resources available at many libraries (WorldCat). Explore how to search WorldCat and the FamilySearch Catalog.

Published Records
Voting records that serve as a substitute for the 1890 census of Chicago and vicinity are found in:


 * Record and Index of Persons Registered and of Poll Lists of Voters, Northern District of Illinois, City of Chicago, 1888, 1888–90, 1892; Town of Lake View, 1888; Town of Hyde Park, 1888; Town of Lake, 1888. Office of the Secretary of State, Micrographics Division, Source Document Unit, 1989. A portion of this is available in:


 * Olsson, Nils William, editor. Swedish Voters in Chicago, 1888: Based upon the Voter Registrations of 1888. Winter Park, Florida: SAG Publications, 1999. Many libraries (WorldCat);

For voters in Chicago in 1937, see:


 * Lurie Index of People in Chicago in 1937 As Well As All of the Voters’ Registration for Chicago. Tucson, Arizona: Reproduction, Inc., 19–?.

Web Sites
Ancestry offers voter records for a few Illinois localities, including Chicago (1888, 1892, and 1890) and Bureau County (1877). ($)