Registers of Parliamentary electors were the creation of the 1832 Reform Act. They have been compiled annually since 1832, except 1916-1917 and 1940-1944 (when the most recent register was used), and 1919-1926 when registers were compiled twice yearly. From 1918 to 1919 separate absent voters' registers were compiled for the separate constituencies and in 1945-1949 civilian and service registers were compiled separately for each constituency. Until 1974 the registers were compiled on a constituency basis; thereafter by District Council area.
Qualifications to vote: The age qualification was 21 until reduced to 18 by an Act of 1969 (effective in 1971). The only exceptions were military personnel of 19 and 20 at the end of World War I, and women, for whom the age qualification was 30 from 1918 to 1928.
During the 19th century a wide range of qualifications existed and, until 1885, there were marked differences between the county and borough franchises for parliamentary purposes.
The important 1918 Act, recognising the part which men and women had played in the First World War, abolished the property qualifications and gave the vote to men at 21 and women at 30, that right being dependent on six months' residence or occupation of business premises worth £ 10 a year.
The women had to be householders or the wives of householders or to have been to university.
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