Voting Qualifications
Voting rights, and therefore inclusion in any surviving electoral rolls, were variously restricted at different times by age, gender, property ownership or length of secure tenancies, residence or academic standing. The qualifications for voting in parliamentary elections were often different from qualifications required to vote in local elections.
Parliamentary franchise
Between 1707 and 1832 the town councils of royal burghs were responsible for choosing the 15 members of parliament representing Scottish burghs while individual feudal superiors of land worth at least 40 shillings, known as freeholders, were entitled to vote for the 30 members of parliament who represented the Scottish counties.[1]
The 1832 Act removed the right of town councils to appoint members of parliament and instead created an electorate entirely of individuals meeting specific qualifications.[2] Voters were male property holders, either owning, life-renting or holding a lease of at least 57 years in heritable property valued at £10 or more.[3] However, the 1832 Act also permitted all who had previously had a vote to continue to hold that right to vote during their lifetime, provided they were enrolled as a Freeholder in a Shire in Scotland.[4]
The Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868 extended the franchise to any man resident in a burgh or county and either owning property or renting or lodging there unless they had been exempted from paying poor rates on the grounds of inability to pay. As both residence and ownership of a business property entitled registration as an elector, it was possible for an individual to be registered and vote in more than one constituency. The 1868 Act also created two university constituencies with voting rights given to members of the General Councils of the existing four Scottish universities.[5] The university constituencies and the business vote were abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1948.[6]
In 1918 the parliamentary franchise was extended to all men over 21 on the basis of residence or business and women over 30 on the same basis as men.[7] Universal suffrage was brought in by the Equal Franchise Act of 1928 which extended the vote to all women over 21 on the same basis as men.[8] In 1970 the voting age was lowered to 18 and in 2014 in Scotland the voting age was lowered to 16 for the independence referendum, later replaced by an Act to lower the age for local and Scottish Parliament elections.[9]
Local franchises
Before 1832, only royal burghs had town councils and the right to vote was generally restricted to burgesses. When burghs obtained local acts of parliament for police and improvement purposes and elected police commissioners, the right to vote was based on holding property but often set at a relatively low value. In Dingwall all ratepayers without restriction were entitled to vote for police commissioners, in Dunfermline and Kilmarnock the franchise was set at £4 and in others it was set at £5.[10] However, the 1833 general legislation for police and parliamentary burghs set the franchise qualification at £10.[11] From 1862 the qualification in small towns was lowered to £6 and in 1872 the property value was set at £4 for school boards.[12] In 1892 the property qualification was tied to the parliamentary franchise.[13]
Women’s right to vote in local elections.
Early local and general police acts did not specify whether voting was restricted to men and at least one local police act specifically included women.[14] The General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act, 1862, restricted voting rights to male householders.[15] However, the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 did not specify whether the voting qualification was limited to men.[16] In 1882 women who lived alone and met the property requirements were permitted to vote in burgh elections.[17] The Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1887 specified that the term householder included female householders and therefore gave them a right to vote on the same basis as male householders.[18] The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 excluded women from being elected as county councillors but gave unmarried women and women who did not live with their husbands the right to be registered as county electors.[19] The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 stated that married women were not excluded from being registered as electors, provided that both husband and wife were not registered for the same property and by implication women were therefore enabled to stand for election to parish councils.[20] In 1907 the right of women, regardless of marital status, to stand for election in local councils was clarified by the Qualification of Women (County and Town Councils) (Scotland) Act, 1907.[21]
The National Library of Scotland holds copies of electoral rolls for all of Scotland from 1946 to the present. Local authority archives services and local library services also may hold copies of modern electoral registers. These are subject to strict access and copying regulations and there are further restrictions on access to registers less than 10 years old.
The survival of earlier electoral rolls is patchy. Some may be found amongst the records of the sheriff courts, as sheriffs were responsible for electoral registration in the counties, and these are held by the National Records of Scotland. Local authority archives services may also hold odd survivals amongst other county records or in deposits and will also hold any surviving records compiled by town clerks or burgh assessors.
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Bibliography
Brown, Keith Mark, ‘Towards political participation and capacity: elections, voting and representation in early modern Scotland’ The Journal of Modern History 88 (2016), pp. 1-33
Butler, D. E., The Electoral System in Britain, 1918-1951 (Clarendon Press, 1953)
Ferguson, W., ‘The electoral system in the Scottish counties before 1832’ in Stair Society Miscellany II (Stair Society, 1984), pp. 261-94
Ferguson, W., ‘Record Sources for the Electoral History of Scotland’ Scottish Archives 4 (1998), pp. 21-31
Griffith, J. A. G., ‘Representation of the People Act, 1949’ The Modern Law Review 13.3 (Jul 1950), pp. 348-50
Hostettler, John & Brian P. Block, Voting in Britain: a history of the Parliamentary franchise (Barry Rose, c.2001)
Keith, Theodora, ‘Municipal elections in the royal burghs of Scotland: I. Prior to the Union’ The Scottish Historical Review, 13.50 (Jan. 1916), pp. 111-25
Keith, Theodora, ‘Municipal elections in the royal burghs of Scotland: II. From the Union to the Passing of the Scottish Burgh Reform Bill in 1833’ The Scottish Historical Review, 13.51 (1916), pp. 266-78
Leneman, Leah, A Guid cause: the women’s suffrage movement in Scotland revised edition (Mercat Press, 1995)
Johnston, Neil ‘The History of the Parliamentary Franchise’ (House of Commons Library Research Paper 13/14, 2013)
King, Elspeth, The Hidden History of Glasgow Women (Mainstream, 1993).
References
[1] Neil Johnston ‘The History of the Parliamentary Franchise’ (House of Commons Library Research Paper 13/14, March 2013) p.13 <https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP13-14/RP13-14.pdf> [accessed 21 Apr 2021].
[2] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65) s.10.
[3] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65) s.9, s.11.
[4] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65) s.6.
[5] Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1868 (c.48).
[6] Representation of the People Act 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c.65).
[7] Representation of the People Act 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. V c.64).
[8] Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 (18 & 19 Geo. V c.12).
[9] Representation of the People Act 1969 (c.15); Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Act 2013 (asp 13); Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015 (asp 7).
[10] David G. Barrie Police in the Age of Improvement (Willan, 2008) p.132.
[11] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will IV c.46) s.9; Parliamentary Burghs (Scotland) Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 77) s2.
[12] General Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c.101) s.3; Education (Scotland) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c.62) s.12(2).
[13] Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1892 (55 & 56 Vict. c.55) s.4 (14).
[14] Gorbals Police Act, 1843 (43 George III c. 42); David G. Barrie Police in the Age of Improvement, p.136.
[15] General Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) 1862 (25 & 26 Vict. c.101) s.3.
[16] Education (Scotland) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c.62) s.12(2).
[17] General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.6).
[18] Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c 42) s.2.
[19] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.50) s.9(1), s.28(2)(i).
[20] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c.58) s.11.
[21] Qualification of Women (County and Town Councils) (Scotland) Act 1907 (7 Edw. VII. c. 48).