Contested Elections
Explore how many elections took place, and how many were contested [15-minute interactive] […]
Author: James Harris
Posts by James Harris
Electorates and Turnout
An introduction to how many people could, and did, vote in the eighteenth century [5-minute read] The ‘electorate’ is the group of individuals who were entitled to vote in an election. This is different from the number of people who actually cast their votes at a poll, a group which we might call the ‘voterate’. […]
Controverted Elections
Disputed results were common, often taking months of legal wrangling to resolve [10-minute read] The majority of eighteenth-century elections went uncontested, which is to say that an agreement had been reached in the constituency not to put up rival candidates, allowing the nominated candidates to be returned unopposed. However, when an opposition did materialise, and […]
What is a Poll Book?
A short introduction to poll books, and how they have survived [5-minute read] In their most fundamental manifestation, poll books are simply lists of voters’ names, recording the candidates for whom they polled. Prior to the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872, electors had to attend elections in person and verbally state their vote. […]
Poll books as historical evidence
What information do poll books contain, and what can historians do with the data? [5-minute read] Beyond the names of the voters, and the candidates for whom they polled, the internal arrangement of poll books was never uniform – partly because the qualification to vote in England could vary widely from constituency to constituency, and […]
Poll Books and the Reading Public
Why were poll books printed, and how were they used? [10-minute read] Poll books display huge variation in their form and format. Of the surviving poll books from the period 1695–1830, half are handwritten manuscripts, and were typically either compiled by clerks (or some other official) at the time of voting, or subsequently copied. The […]
Challenging votes
Electors often had their entitlement to vote challenged, so had to prove their case [10-minute read] The requirement for every elector to justify their right to vote at the hustings was a routine part of Georgian elections. Eighteenth-century England did not enjoy universal enfranchisement, and the confusing array of franchises (which determined who was legally […]
