Iowa Voting Records online consist of voter registration lists. Indexed collections will be the easiest to search; image-only collections will contain more information.

In the United States voting rights have always come with limitations. In the 1700s and early 1800s, voting rights were restricted primarily to white men who owned property and some states restricted voting rights even further.

During the 1800s voting rights restrictions were gradually reduced and voters didn’t need to own property and, after 1870, race was not a qualification to vote but some states still restricted voting through poll taxes (a tax paid to vote which affected the less affluent), literacy tests, all-white primaries, and language requirements.

The 1900s saw the greatest expansion of voting rights including:

• rights were extended to women (1920)

• the Voting Rights Acts to prevent additional prohibitive voting laws (1965)

• poll taxes were banned in the U.S. by the Supreme Court (1966) 

• the right to vote for anyone 18 years old or older (1971)

• protection for language minorities (1975)

• protection for people with disabilities (1982)

• and simplified voter registration (1993).

Voting records may include:

• name

• physical description of person

• age

• gender

• registration date

• dates voted

• residence

• marital status

• property ownership

• occupation

• place of birth

• citizenship status, if naturalized, date, court

TIP – Login with your free FamilySearch account to unlock some collections — see other tips for opening FS resources.

KEY to collections

• FS=FamilySearch FREE but login with your free account to access
• Anc$=Ancestry – fee site
• MH=MyHeritage – fee site
• AG – AccessGenealogy
• GTHG – Genealogy Trails History Group
• IA – Internet Archive
• RW – RootsWeb

Iowa Voting Records online

Benton County – Voting Registers – Election Book, 1851-1866, at FS

Chickasaw County – Voting Registers – Dresden Township Poll Book, 1860, at FS

Iowa City – Voting Registers – Iowa City Register of Voters, 1897-1904, at FS

Iowa City – Voting Registers – Iowa, Iowa City, Voter Registers : COLLECTION RECORD, 1897-1904, at FS

Johnson County – Voting Registers – Johnson Co., Iowa, Miscellaneous Records, at FS

Linn County – Voting Registers – Election Records, 1851-1861, at FS

Wyoming – Voting Registers – Poll Book of General Election : Held Tuesday, November 8, 1932, Wyoming Precinct, Wyoming City, Wyoming Township Jones County, Iowa, at FS