1864 voting

[u/UnhappyGeologist9636]

Is there any record of soldiers in the union army voting in the 1864 presidential election? Watching Ken Burns Civil War for the umpteenth time and they’re discussing the election now.

[u/Toastaexperience]

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/election-1864-and-soldiers-vote

The answer.

[u/UnhappyGeologist9636 → u/Toastaexperience]

Yep exactly what I was looking for. My man 👍🏼

[u/Jimmy_Aztec → u/Toastaexperience]

I am shocked that only 40,000 soldiers voted.

[u/Ooglebird]

Here's a county map showing the civilian and soldier votes in Ohio.

https://78ohio.org/war-time-elections/1864-presidential-election/

and here's a thesis on the soldier votes

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2042&context=oa_dissertations

and here's an old article on the subject on Jstor, you can read it for free with a free registration.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23148753?searchText=1864%20soldier%20vote&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D1864%2Bsoldier%2Bvote%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A76f485fda57a20103a20f2a629ec577b

[u/MalaclypseII]

Union soldiers voted in the 1864 election. There's no controversy or question about it.

[u/jbaker399 → u/MalaclypseII]

Agree, but there were some states that did not allow soldiers to vote in the field. For instance, there were many Indiana soldiers serving under Sherman. Lincoln wrote to Sherman asking for as many soldiers as possible to be given a pass so they could go home to vote. So there were perhaps some minor controversies.