Oddity on electoral roll is puzzling me

[Tickettyboo]

I am puzzled by an electoral roll entry I have found for 1929-1930 in Liverpool. Don't want to post the names / details as at last one person 'may' still be alive and anyway its the 'likely' scenario that puzzles/interests me. I've posted in here as the query is not specific to one particular county and this could (I assume) have happened anywhere.

Scenario as follows:

Charlie Bloggs married Mary Smith in 1925
By 1939 they had 4 children, 3 of whom are redacted on the national ID Register. The only unredacted entry for a child was Fred Bloggs born 1928.
I noted the address they were at and started to look at earlier electoral rolls to see if I could see the couple in there.

1939-1940 at this same address : Charlie Bloggs and Mary Bloggs , that looks fine.
1934-1935 at this same address:  Charlie Bloggs and Mary Bloggs , that too looks fine.

1929-1930 at this same address:  Charlie Bloggs, Mary Bloggs, Fred Bloggs and Mary Bloggs Junr

That is the oddity!
Fred Bloggs was listed on the 1939 register with a birth year of 1928, above him in the list is a redacted entry that is likely to be his older sister Mary Bloggs Junr who was born in 1927.

So the only conclusion I can come to is that whoever gave the info totally misunderstood that they only had to include those old enough to be eligible to vote and so gave the names of everyone in the family including the two children who were barely old enough to toddle :-) It would appear that the information was just taken at face value (and maybe the information didn't require birth dates??), though it does seem to have been corrected in later electoral rolls.

Has anyone ever come across a similar oddity?

Boo

[KGarrad]

Electoral Rolls don't ask questions re ages or birth dates
People are/were supposed to follow the instructions as printed on the form?

But every year, there are stories of children being sent voter's cards, enabling them to vote at an election!

And all because the person filling in the form didn't do it properly.

[Tickettyboo]

Thanks, I couldn't remember about what was asked on the forms - though I do have the electoral roll from the year my husband was one of the first to vote at age 18 - and his entry clearly says his birth day and month in the printed roll - as he wouldn't have been able to vote that year if there was an election prior to his birthday.

Interesting to know that this couple weren't the only ones who didn't read the instructions properly and that it still happens. That could be a huge loophole for voting fraud to wriggle through.

Boo

[Ray T]

It's not unknown for dogs and cats to appear on the electoral register and it often gave the popular press copy to say how stupid the local council was to send them a voting card when the only stupid person was the one who put them on the register form in the first place.

Things are a little different now that the public has proved that their word can't be taken on trust.

Intestingly, you don't actually need a poll card to go and vote and waving it at the polling staff should not, in itself, get you a ballot paper to fill in. You are required to simply state your name and address.

[Tickettyboo]

It's not unknown for dogs and cats to appear on the electoral register and it often gave the popular press copy to say how stupid the local council was to send them a voting card when the only stupid person was the one who put them on the register form in the first place.

Things are a little different now that the public has proved that their word can't be taken on trust.

Intestingly, you don't actually need a poll card to go and vote and waving it at the polling staff should not, in itself, get you a ballot paper to fill in. You are required to simply state your name and address.

ha,ha! dogs and cats?
and the 'party workers' who stand outside and ask as you leave "How did you vote?" do annoy me, they always look bemused when I say, "by putting a cross beside the name of a candidate I think will do the best job".
:-)

Boo

[Ray T]

Back in the days when I used to run a polling station I always found the number takers a real pain in the backside. They're legally not allowed in the polling station itself so I used to pray for either a freezing cold day or one where it was tipping with rain.

I doubt whether they perform any useful purpose and I'm convinced that they're simply there to give the party faithful the feeling that they're doing something worthwhile.

After the event, the complaints about the atitude of presiding officers to them would come in to which the answer inevitably was that these complaints were far outweighed by complaints by members of the public about the number takers.

They're nothing whatsoever to do with the actual voting process and my advice would be to either ignore them completely or treat them with the same contempt you would treat cold callers.

[nanny jan]

I understood that the 'number takers' were noting who had voted and not how they voted; this was to prevent them being visited later in the day to be reminded that it was time to go out and vote.

[KGarrad]

I did a spell as a Teller a few years ago - complete waste of time!

We had no idea who had said they would vote for "my" candidate; so I never did understand what I was supposed to be doing!
We were not allowed to speak to people before they went in; only after they came out.

Also, bear in mind that this was on the Isle of Man, where few candidates represent a Political Party.

[roopat]

In our village there used to be something of a party atmosphere at election time. At one election, I & my husband & my mother sat in the porch of our local primary school, each of us as number-takers/tellers, supporting a different party. We all had a good laugh about it, including the voters who knew us of course.


Yes Nanny Jan, we were there to see who hadn't voted, then later in the day Father-in-law used to go and fetch some of the old dears who couldn't walk to the polling station. (Oh I'm one of those old dears now  )


At no time did we ask people how they voted, (I don't think we were allowed) we simply crossed them off our list as they went in. The point was if we had found known supporters when we were canvassing, who then hadn't voted, we could go & remind them to vote.


We were actively taking an interest in the election to try to achieve what we each felt was the right outcome, unlike the terrible apathy which exists today