Poll
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
Originally, the head; hence, secondarily, it stands for an individual person. Counting the polls is enumerating the individuals in a body; a challenge to the polls is a challenge of single jurors. See Challenge. Polling a jury is asking each individual for his verdict; polling electors is taking their votes, man by man; a poll-tax is a tax of a specific sum upon each person, as distinguished from a tax on property. More remote uses of the word are notheir votes, man by man; a deed polled, or a deed-poll, is one shaved smooth, like a priest's poll. See Dbkd; Indenture.