Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Additional collection guides
Descriptive Summary
Title: Great Registers of Placer County
Dates: 1871 – 1952 non -inclusive
Collection Number: Various
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 7 Boxes
Repository:
Placer County Archives
Abstract: The Placer County Archives maintains a collection of official Placer County Records regarding the lists of registered voters
in Placer County.
Language of Material: English
Access
The Collection is open for research by appointment. Appointment times are available on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from
9-3.
Preferred Citation
Great Registers of Placer County. Placer County Archives
Biography/Administrative History
The practice of registering voters before elections was established to prevent voter fraud. Placer County’s early history
of elections are filled with tales of more votes being cast than there were citizens eligible to vote. Ballot boxes were
often nailed to a tree and residents could vote any number of times. The Great Registers were an attempt to regulate the eligible
voters in the County.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Placer County Great Registers contain the name of eligible voter, age, country of nativity, local residence, when and
where naturalized and date registered. The early records encompass the whole county, later volumes are organized by precincts.
Many contain extended information detailing; occupation, color of hair and eyes and complexion, the listing of marks or scars
and their location, any physical disability, whether the registrant could read the U. S. Constitution in English, whether
he could write his name and whether he could physically cast a ballot. Eligible voters were restricted to males over the
age of 21 until women were given the right to vote in California in 1911.
Additional collection guides