United States Voting Records

Online Voting Records
Most voting records are kept at local and state level. To see what voting records are available for your locality, visit your state's voting records page, which are linked below.

State-specific Voting Records Articles
The following websites also have voting records online:
 * FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Ancestry.com ($)
 * FamilySearch Catalog - Place Search: Search city, county, state.

Why Use Voting Records
Voting records can be useful, because they can help you achieve the following:
 * Learn the exact years an ancestor inhabited a place.
 * Find naturalization information (information on when your ancestor became a citizen).
 * Estimate year of immigration.
 * Locate ancestor in an unindexed census (esp. state census).
 * Find other family members.

Potential Contents
Voting records often contain the following information:
 * Name
 * Birth place
 * Address
 * Years living in city, county, state
 * Whether naturalized, date, court
 * Identifying marks
 * Social Security no.

Search Compiled Records First
Use compiled records first, but confirm all information by reviewing the original records. Individuals were listed in the order they registered, thus, you may find relatives who are registering with a different surname. Compiled records list voters alphabetically. The original records may list more information that was not extracted into the compiled source.

Find ancestor in all available voting lists
This is helpful because:
 * You can track your ancestor through the voting lists to determine when they may have moved in or out of an area.
 * Find name variations for surnames that are more difficult to spell, as exact spelling was not important until later in the 20th Century.
 * Find other addresses in a town/city that your family lived.
 * You may find other relatives living at the same address.