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Great Registers of Placer County
Various  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • 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
    Auburn, California 95603
    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