• General information about Voting Registers in UK & Ireland.
• Electoral Registers/Rolls (aka Burgess Lists) (lists of those eligible to vote in local and national elections).  See explanation from Family Search.   British Library holds copies of all past and present Electoral Registers for view by personal visit.  Their online guide provides details of what is available, both from them and from companies offering paid-for online access.
  • An article in Berkshire Family Historian, Dec 2012, Vol 36, page 20 explains their value.
  • Berkshire FHS talk on Feb 2016 Poll Books, Burgess Lists, Electoral Rolls and Family History. 
  • Berkshire FHS publish the Electoral Roll for Berkshire for 1832.  It is particularly useful since it reflects the increased franchise as a result of the wide-ranging reforms to the electoral system of England and Wales in 1832, and the next best thing to a census.
  • Reading Central Library hold Electoral Registers for Reading and Berkshire.  See their Factsheet or search their catalogue for "Electoral Register".  
  • The RBA hold Electoral Registers for 1832, and from 1839 to the present day.
  • Ancestry, The Genealogist and Find My Past provide subscription access to some electoral rolls, including Berkshire.
• Poll  Books (lists of those who actually voted, and often how).  See explanation from Family Search.  
  • Berkshire FHS talk Poll Books, Burgess Lists, Electoral Rolls and Family History. 
  • Berkshire FHS have published online (members only)  Poll Books for 1727, 1768, 1796, 1812, 1818 and Electoral Register for 1832. The information is also published as CDs in the shop.
  • Reading Central Library hold Poll Books for Reading and Berkshire.  See their Factsheet. 
  • The RBA hold county and borough Poll Books for certain years between 1688 and 1863. 
  • Berkshire Poll Book 1727, transcribed and published by The Eureka Partnership.
  • Ancestry, The Genealogist provide subscription access to some poll books, including Berkshire.  
  • Reading’s Voter’s List for 1790 was contested, although the sitting MPs, Francis Annesley and Richard Aldworth Neville would go on to hold their seats against the opposing candidate, Richard Barry, 7th Earl of Barrymore. Annesley had sat in the House of Commons since 1774 and by 1790, enjoyed wide support and popularity in Reading. He came top of the poll that year.  Aldworth Neville, later 2nd Baron Braybrooke, had served Reading since 1784. Both were supporters of William Pitt the younger. Their opponent, an English nobleman also infamous as a rake, gambler, sportsman and womanizer, perhaps unsurprisingly was defeated.  A transcript is available to members of the Berkshire FHS giving names, occupations and how they voted. The original document is held in the RBA.

Workhouses - see Poorhouses. 

In the UK these are referred to as Electoral Registers or Electoral Rolls. In earlier times they are often known as Poll Books.

• The electoralregisters.org.uk site offers ... information about the electoral registers, electoral rolls, poll books from 1700 to the present day, how to access the registers online, how to make the most from your searches, what is available and not available, and much, much, more.
• For some of the legal background, this legal volume about The Representation of the People Act, 1918 may prove useful - https://archive.org/details/representationof00frasrich?view=theater

• British Library holds copies of all past and present Electoral Registers for view by personal visit. Their online guide provides details of what is available, both from them and from companies offering paid-for online access. 
• Lists of Names: Pollbooks and Electoral Registers (archived copy), by Stuart A. Raymond.
• Electoral Registers - "information about the electoral registers, electoral rolls, poll books from 1700 to the present day, how to access the registers online, . . ."