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Archiver > SOG-UK > 2001-07 > 0994514331


From: "LA Greenall" <>
Subject: RE: [SoG] Electoral rolls/Voters Lists
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 14:58:51 +0100
In-Reply-To: <015701c1066e$539f42c0$13c760cb@co.nz>


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shirley Arabin [mailto:]
> Sent: 06 July 2001 23:42
>
>
> Do these restrictions apply to earlier rolls/lists ? i.e.
> earlier in 20th
> century, and if so, do they still exist ?
> Shirley Arabin

Do you mean the copyright restrictions? If so, then the general copyright
rules as discussed on the list a while back would I suppose cover electoral
registers no differently to any other such publication - for example, being
in force for 70 years after the death of the author.

The 'secret ballot' where who one votes for is a very private matter, is a
relatively new development. As recently as the 19th century, all voters had
to cast their lot publicly; one consequence of this was a rash of regular
pubications indicating which party all prominent residents of a district
voted for at the last election, thus indicating allegiances and leanings of
various sorts, and so on. So a good number of past registers do still
exist, often published in this form. I'm sure the SOG lib will have many of
them.

Hope this helps, Lawrence.

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