Research

Scope and Content Note

The series consists of records received by the commission from war voters to participate in the general election on November 7, 1944. Voters included members of the United States Armed Forces, American Red Cross, or other U.S. service organization attached to units in World War II, who resided in New York State but cast absentee ballots while on military duty. Records include approximately 6,000 post cards (and a few dozen manuscript letters) mailed to the commission's Albany office requesting absentee ballots or notifying the commission of a change in military address; and also approximately 2,000 envelopes in which official election war ballots were mailed to the commission (or to county boards of election). No actual ballots are present in the series.

Most of the cards were produced by the U.S. War Department and distributed to soldiers to file notification of a change in military address, or as application to receive an official absentee voting ballot. Cards may include soldier's name; rank/grade; serial number; company/unit; military address; former military address; resident address at time of induction; and signature. Cards requesting absentee ballots sometimes provide date of birth. The empty cancelled ballot envelopes carry the name and return military address (and sometimes the serial number) of the voter. There is a very small amount of non-voting related material present, including clippings of individual actions, reports of battle engagements, or other events. It is unclear how or why these were retained.