WASHINGTON, March 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
VOTER REGISTRATION
Profile America — Saturday, March 12th. The right to vote began to receive some supervision more than two centuries ago, when Massachusetts acted this month in 1801 to register voters. At that time, the franchise was limited to men — usually those of local repute and owning property. Town assessors drew up publicly posted lists of voters. If any voter was omitted, documents proving eligibility were accepted. The practice caught on very slowly. Only after the Civil War did voter registration become widespread. Today, North Dakota is the only state without a registration requirement, although proof of residency must be shown. In 2014, out of a voting age population of nearly 220 million citizens, over 64 percent were registered to vote. In Massachusetts, registration was just under 62 percent. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 3424
Development of voter registration/accessed 1/5/2016:
http://vote.caltech.edu/content/election-day-voter-registration-united-states-how-one-step-voting-can-change-composition
North Dakota voting/accessed 1/5/2016: http://www.nd.gov/sos/electvote/voting/voter-qualifi.html
Lack of registration/accessed 1/5/2016: https://vip.sos.nd.gov/pdfs/Portals/votereg.pdf
National and state registration/Tables 1 & 4a: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2014/Table02_1.xls
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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