California Voting Records

United StatesCaliforniaCalifornia Voting Registers

California voter registration records can help you locate most male citizens between the years of the federal censuses. The first voter registration records were county poll lists. Although poll lists were required by law after 1850, the earliest records are incomplete.

In 1866, poll lists were replaced by voter registers known as the Great Registers. Each voter was required to register with the county clerk, giving his full name, age, state or country of birth, occupation, and address. If naturalized, he was to declare the name of the court and the date when the naturalization took place. An 1872 law required all counties to print an alphabetical list of voters every two years. Since 1895, data on voters has been more detailed.

All but a few of the Great Registers are available at the California Section of the California State Library in Sacramento. Duplicate copies are at the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley, and also in county courthouses. Most are on microfilm at the Family History Library. For example, for San Francisco the library has 190 films that include the:


 * Great Registers, 1866-1898
 * Indexes, 1866, 1888-1904
 * Index of naturalized voters, 1850-1898

Printed and Microfilmed Resources
Some original manuscript registers have been destroyed, and information is only available in the printed versions. Many existing printed registers and indexes reside at the California State Library in Sacramento; some are housed at Bancroft Library at University of California in Berkeley.

Other indexes may be found in county courthouses, archives, or libraries. Most of the manuscript great registers and indexes are listed in the Guide to the County Archives of California (see Selected Bibliography).

Many printed indexes are available on microfilm through several repositories, including the California State Library in Sacramento and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or through a local family history center.


 * The 1890 Great Register of Voters Index. The California State Genealogical Alliance produced a 3-volume index as a partial substitute for the destroyed 1890 Federal Census. This index includes 311,028 men living in California in 1890. This index was also published by Heritage Quest on CD-ROM.
 * San Francisco, California: 1890 Great Register of Voters. This particular index includes only those men living in the city and county of San Francisco in 1890. This volume may be helpful to those researching San Francisco before the great quake and fire in 1906 that destroyed many of the city’s records.

Copies of printed registers or indexes, especially those compiled from the 1890 Great Registers, may be located in libraries through WorldCat.

Affidavits of Registration.
Most early affidavits were destroyed, but some still exist in counties, usually archived by the county.