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Glite Dictionary
🗳️ List of voters 📜 Record of votes
pollbook

pollbook

1 9.6
A record that shows how each person voted in an election before votes were secret
  • noun
  • /ˈpoʊlˌbʊk/
  • Archaic
: registro de votantes
  • Before counting the votes, the officials reviewed the pollbook to confirm that each person had participated in the election.

Examples

  • She discovered on Election Day that not only had her polling place been relocated without her knowledge, but also that she had somehow been designated as "inactive" by the state and didn't appear in the pollbooks.

    Blog text (34)

  • The volunteers checked the pollbook to ensure all voters were registered before they cast their ballots.

  • During the election, the workers used the pollbook to verify that each voter was eligible to vote at the designated polling station.

Surface Forms

pollbook singular
pollbooks plural

Morphology

pollbook = poll + book (semi-transparent) = poll + book

While the components signal a 'book' related to polls, this sense refers to a specific historical/legal record of how individuals voted, a narrower usage learners might not infer from the bare components.

Etymology

The word pollbook also once meant a book that listed how each person voted: here poll means 'vote' and book means 'record'. That's why old pollbooks showed each voter's choice openly before secret ballots were used.