October, 2008 Workshop - National Archives, Waltham Mass

Documents for the "Electoral Vote Count " Sub-lesson...from the National Archives, Waltham, MA

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• Worksheet for Examining Electoral Vote Counts
• Created for use with the electoral ballot counts of the 1860 election (see below), this worksheet asks students to examine the data provided thereon.

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• The Poor Voter on Election Day - a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
• This poem, written in 1852, puts forth the idea that within the context of an election, all voters are equal. It is an interesting notion, given at the time, that people of color and women were not allowed to vote. Whittier, a well known abolitionist and poet, was an elector representing Essex County and Amesbury specifically, in the 1860 presidential election.

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• Ballot Counts of Electors for President & Vice President, 1860
• (Transcripts included in the .pdf)
• These documents from the National Archives are counts of the number of electors casting votes for particular candidates. They list the names of the electors, who were themselves elected at that time. The transcriptions contain some information about those electors in the footnotes. This election for which Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won the seats marks the emergence of the Republican party.

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• Ballot Counts of Electors for President & Vice President, 1844
• (Transcripts included in the .pdf)
• This is another set of Ballot Counts. Henry Clay was the candidate who won the Massachusetts electoral votes for this year.

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• Various additional Ballot Counts for the 1840 & 1848 Elections
• These National Archives documents are addittional Ballot Vote Counts for 1840 and 1848 elections. They do not have transcriptions, however the wording of the documents is similar to the 1844 texts and could easily be adapted.

Documents ...from the Gloucester Archives, Gloucester, MA

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• Act Directing the Mode of Choosing Electors (1828), Circular Specifying Polling Rules (1840), Act Regulating Electors (1844) -
• These documents give directions pertaining to voting and the choice of Massachusetts electors in the early to mid-nineteenth century. They could be used as background for students or to direct a student centered mock election.

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