BY KARISSA MILLER

Iredell County residents can now visit the Statesville Historical Collection and thumb through the county ledgers to locate their ancestors’ original voter registration.

Iredell County Board of Elections Director Susie Jordan said that most of the early registrations were done in large ledger books. Among the information in the ledgers is the registration date, political affiliation and if they voted in the primary and election.

Also, in the ledger, residents can see where their ancestors were born, their home address, age, full name and signature.

On Tuesday, Jordan, along with Board of Elections members, presented Statesville Historical Collection owner Steve Hill with voting ledgers dating from the 1950s to 1970s as well as voting ballots that date back to 1944.

Jordan said that the ledgers have been stored in the Board of Elections Office cabinets. The staff needs more space so the board decided to donate the ledgers to the Statesville Historical Collection. The Board of Elections office will still have a record of the voter ledger information and ballots (abstracts) in their office.

“The ledgers, which you have been so kind to loan, are a wonderful addition to our research library,” Hill said.

The ledgers and ballots are open to the public to view and enjoy.

“It’s a great resource for genealogy. Aside from knowing how grandma registered to vote, it has death notices in here and also shows when people moved. There’s lot of valuable genealogical information in here,” Hill said.

“We love the history around here. Each of these pages has a story. Thank you for entrusting us with this,” he added.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the N.C. State Board of Elections, attended the short ceremony.

“It’s wonderful to see this kind of connection between the elections office and the community as a whole,” Bell said. “It’s also a reminder of the importance of our work and the mark we make on history — ensuring we have the right to vote. Some of those voters are still voters today.”

Bell said it’s a reminder of “free and fair elections” and “how things have changed and how much more secure our processes are.”

Iredell County Board of Elections

• Alan Carpenter, chair
• Ginky Lee Torres-Lespier, secretary
• Jason Abernathy
• Chris Carney
• Jim Dobson

About the Statesville Historical Collection

Statesville Historical Collection is a free museum that shares the history of Statesville and Iredell County. It is located at 212 N. Center Street in Statesville. It’s open from 12 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday-Friday.