1828 version of Webster's American Dictionary:
POLL , n. [D. bol, a ball, bowl, crown, poll, pate, bulb.]
1. The head of a person, or the back part of the head, and in composition, applied to the head of a beast, as in poll-evil.
2. A register of heads, that is, of persons, -Shak.
3. The entry of the names of electors who vote for civil officers. Hence,
4. An election of civil officers, or the place of, election.
Our citizens say, at the opening or close of the poll, that is, at the beginning of the register of voters and reception of votes, or the close of the
same. They say also, we are going to the poll ; many voters appeared at the poll. -New York.
5. A fish called a chub or chcvin. [See Pollard.]
POLL, v.t. To lop the tops of trees. -Bacon.
2. To clip; to cut off the ends; to cut off hair or wool ; to shear. The phrases, to poll the hair, and to poll the head, have been used. The latter
is used in 2 Sam. xiv. 26. To poll a deed, is a phrase still used in law language. -Z. Swift.,
3. To mow ; to crop. [Not used.] -Shak.
4. To peel ; to strip ; to plunder. Obs. -Bacon. Spenser.
5. To take a list or register of persons; to enter names in a list.
6. To enter one's name in a list or register. -Dryden
7. To insert into a number as a voter. -Tickel.
POLLER , n. [from poll.] One that shaves persons ; a barber. [Not used].
2. One that lops or polls trees.
3. A pillager ; a plunderer; one that fleeces by exaction. [Not used.] -Bacon
UNPOLLED, a. Not registered as a voter.
2. Unplundered; not stripped. Fanshaw.
Notice that when one goes to the polls, they are stripped or plundered of some 'thing'. What is that thing you are stripped or plundered of? lets
look in a book that inspired the Declaration of Independence called,:
THE LAW OF NATIONS OR PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF NATURE APPLIED TO THE CONDUCT AND AFFAIRS OF NATIONS AND SOVEREIGNS FROM THE FRENCH OF MONSIEUR DE
VATTEL ;
§ 4. In what light nations or states are to be considered.
Nations being composed of men naturally free and independent, and who, before the establishment of civil societies, lived together in the state of
nature, — Nations , or sovereign states, are to be considered as so many free persons living together in the state of nature.
It is a settled point with writers on the natural law, that all men inherit from nature a perfect liberty and independence , of which they cannot be
deprived without their own consent. In a State, the individual citizens do not enjoy them fully and absolutely, because they have made a partial
surrender of them to the sovereign. But the body of the nation, the State, remains absolutely free and independent with respect to all other men, and
all other Nations, as long as it has not voluntarily submitted to them.
§ 5. To what laws nations are subject.
As men are subject to the laws of nature, — and as their union in civil society cannot have exempted them from the obligation to observe those laws,
since by that union they do not cease to be men, — the entire nation, whose common will is but the result of the united wills of the citizens,
remains subject to the laws of nature , and is bound to respect them in all her proceedings. And since right arises from obligation, as we have just
observed (§3), the nation possesses also the same rights which nature has conferred upon men in order to enable them to perform their duties
-
Source:
www.constitution.org...
....Back to the 1828 version of Webster's American Dictionary:
VOTE, n. [It. Sp. voto ; L. votum, from voveo, to vow. Votum is properly wish or will.]
1. Suffrage ; the expression of a wish, desire, will, preference or choice, in regard to any measure proposed, in which the person voting has an
interest... in common with others, either in electing a man to office, or in passing laws, rules, regulations and the like. This vote or expression of
will may be given by holding up the hand, by rising and standing up, by the voice, (viva voce,) by ballot, by a ticket or otherwise.
All these modes and others are used. -Hence
2. That by which will or preference is expressed in elections, or in deciding propositions; a ballot; a ticket, &c. ; as a written vote.
3. Expression of will by a majority ; legal decision by some expression of the minds of a number ; as, the vote was unanimous.
4. United voice in public prayer.
VOTE, r.t. To choose by suffrage ; to elect by some expression of will ; as, the citizens voted their candidate into office with little opposition.
2. To enact or establish by vote or some expression of will. The legislature voted the resolution unanimously.
3. To grant by vote or expression of will.
Parliament voted them a hundred thousand pounds. -Swift.
VO'TED, pp. Expressed by vote or sulfrage;. determined.
VO'TER, n. One who has a legal right to vote or give his suffrage.