Annual Canvass of Electors

[askit]

Does anyone know the history of the Annual Canvass of Electors?

I seem to think it was introduced on an annual basis at the time of the Poll Tax.  Prior to that the registration of electors was only carried out whenever there was an election.  Is this correct?
 

[bernardo]

No.  It has always been done on an annual basis, ever since the modern mass electorate has been in existence since the 19th century.  The Poll Tax had nothing to do with it, because the Poll Tax register was completely different from the electoral register and the two had no connection with each other.  It would be illogical to say that it would only have been done at election time, because the date of an election is only known about a month beforehand anyway.  These days, there are elections almost every year anyway (General Election once every 4 or 5 years, European elections every 5 years, local elections every 4 years (or 3 times every 4 years, depending on what part of the country)) and GLA elections / Scottish / Welsh assembly elections every 4 years.