Also 6 Sc. wottar. [f. VOTE v.]
1. One who has a right to vote; esp. an elector.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S. T. S.), I. 267. The lordis devyssit and chargit Lord Patrick Lyndsay of the Byaris to be chancellor and first wottar in the consall.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.), 191. As to the number of voters, that there should be fifty-one.
1767. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., II. 10. Every freeholder of forty shillings sterl. a year is a voter.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xlvii. He usually drove his voters up to the poll with his own hands.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 458. In the towns in which he wished to establish an interest, he remembered, not only the voters, but their families.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, lix. IV. 31. Voters were dragged to the poll like slaves or prisoners.
b. One who gives a vote. rare–1.
1701. Sir D. Hume, Diary Parl. Scot. (Bann. Cl.), 78. So by vote it was carried (Halcraig and I being no voters,) to send a macer … to require them to attend the Council.
† 2. One who is bound by an oath or vow. Obs.–1
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 240. The Generall would passe noe other way than Balimore, as enformed of the said oath to try whether nowe or neuer they did proue true voters.
