Electoral Rolls, who qualified in 1904 ?

[TimothyWF]

I have a situation where an ancestor, an Inspector in the Birmingham Police, got promoted to Chief Constable and moved to Halifax. In Birmingham he lived with his father in law in Aston as a Lodger. On arrival at Halifax he is listed at an address in the 1903/04 and 05 Electoral Roll books. I beleive that only house owners qualified to vote at this time so I am assuming he purchased the house, and received an Allowance for it. I am also informed that if it had been a Corporation owned house that went with the job, he would not have owned it but have been a tenant, and he wouldn't have been able to vote at this time. But his name is in the book.
I know property owners were the only people able to vote at one time, but were tenants allowed to in 1904-05 ? Did being a Policeman make any difference ?

 

[mikejee]

Timothy
I do not claim to be an expert on electoral rolls , especially pre 1918, but, there apparently was a section of the roll books, in 1912 at least, called Division 3 voters. These were people who were entitled to vote in local elections by reason of their occupation, and the people were , I understand, called burgesses. I would have thought your ancestors occupation would made him eligible on these grounds to be included in the rolls , even if on no other grounds. The definition of eligibility to vote seems very complicated, and , with an emphasis on surrey is discussed for local and general elections respectively is given at https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/The+parliamentary+franchise+before+1918?opendocument and https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/The+local+government+franchise+before+1918?opendocument

There seem to be many explanations as to why he might be included
Mike