Victoria Voting Records

Online Resources

 * Victoria Electoral Rolls at FindMyPast Index ($)
 * 1843-1866 - A Few electoral rolls, 1843-1866 at FamilySearch, images.
 * 1856-1857 - Card index of Victoria lists of electors, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
 * 1856-1857 - Electoral roll, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
 * 1870-1882 - Burgess rolls, 1870-1882 at FamilySearch, images.
 * Electoral rolls : Gippsland Division, 1905 at FamilySearch, images.
 * Electoral rolls, Melbourne, 1856-1857 at FamilySearch, images.
 * Electoral rolls, Port Phillip district, 1843 at FamilySearch, images.
 * Electoral rolls, Port Phillip district, 1848 at FamilySearch, images.

New South Wales Including Victoria Prior to 1851-55

 * New South Wales Electoral Rolls at FindMyPast, index and images, ($).
 * 1842-1864 - New South Wales, Australia Historical Electoral Rolls, 1842-1864, index, browse, and images, ($).

Australia

 * Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 at Ancestry, Index ($)
 * Australia Electoral Rolls, 1893-1949 at MyHeritage, ($), index

New South Wales Archive Resources Kit, Including Records for Areas now in Victoria
"The ARK is held by 40 community access points across NSW. The majority of access points are libraries. The ARK consists of microfilm copies of our most popular and heavily used colonial records. Included are records relating to convict arrivals, assisted immigrants, births, deaths and marriages, publicans' licences, electoral rolls, naturalisation, returns of the colony ('Blue Books'), land grants, and the wide range of functions of the Colonial Secretary (1788-1825). You may find that the ARK (or parts of it) are held at a library near you." - Voting registers, or electoral rolls, are a census of those who were eligible to vote. They are valuable because a country-wide census wasn't taken until 1911. Early electoral rolls give an individual’s name, residence, status of property occupation/ownership, and the nature of the rateable property.
 * Archive Resources Kit
 * Community Access Points A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records A list of libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records

Voting rights were tied to property ownership; therefore, all men were not eligible to vote in the early years. Full adult male suffrage was not granted in most colonies until the 1850s and later. Women’s suffrage was not granted in the states until around 1900. Non-British subjects, unless naturalized, were not granted suffrage until the 1940s. Aboriginal suffrage was not granted until 1949. -