How long were there still Registered Whigs?

[Thunderbird is the word]

I was just thinking, could there have still been registered Whigs on the voter roles into the twentieth century. Someone born in the 1830s who first registered to vote in the 1850s and lived to an old age. I wonder if looking at archived voter roles from the 1910s or 20s you'd still find the odd septegenerian Whig.

[RINO Tom]

Great question, I'd love to hear anyone who can drop some knowledge on us!

Semi-related, does anyone know when certain states dropped partisan registration?  I read in an article one time about independents coming close to registered Republicans in VT in the 1980s, and obviously they don't have partisan registration now.

[Oak Hills]

I'm virtually certain that there was no such thing as party registration until the beginning of primaries around 1900. No closed primaries, no reason for the government to keep track of people's party affiliations.

Similarly, there was no such thing as a government-printed ballot until the 1890s, and South Carolina didn't even have them till the early 1950s. The parties would print ballots with all their candidate's names on them to their supporters, or people could write their own ballots.