Do jury lists come from voter registrations?
Executive summary
Federal and state courts commonly use voter registration lists as a primary source for compiling jury source lists, but they rarely rely on voter lists alone—most jurisdictions supplement with driver’s license records, tax rolls, and other public records to create a more representative master jury list [1] [2] [3].
1. How courts legally source jurors: the statutory and administrative baseline
Federal law and court plans require jurors be selected at random from a fair cross‑section of the community, and in practice courts obtain names from official state lists such as voter registration rolls; the U.S. Courts’ jury selection guidance states explicitly that “all courts use the respective state voter lists as a source of prospective jurors,” and 28 U.S.C. provisions and district plans describe creating master jury wheels from such lists [1] [4] [2].
2. Voter rolls are common but not exclusive
Multiple authoritative summaries and state statutes show that voter lists are a frequent starting place but typically supplemented: state plans and court administrators routinely add driver’s license/ID registries, tax rolls, unemployment lists, or utility records when voter files alone are insufficient to produce a representative pool, and some jurisdictions even specify multiple source lists in statute [5] [6] [7] [8].
3. Why supplementation matters: representativeness and legal concerns
Scholarly and administrative analyses stress that relying only on voter registration can skew the composition of the pool—people who don’t register to vote, younger residents, or infrequent registrants can be undercounted—so courts supplement with motor vehicle records and other data specifically to meet the fair‑cross‑section mandate and to reduce bias in selection [9] [2] [7].
4. Variation across jurisdictions: no single national rule
Practice varies by state, county, and between federal and state courts: some district plans draw from the same lists for both federal and state juries, others permit alternative sources entirely (e.g., city directories in certain plans), and local statutes may prescribe which records to include when compiling master jury lists—so while voter rolls are ubiquitous, the exact mix of sources is decentralized and governed locally [4] [2] [5].
5. Practical implementation: from compiled lists to summoned jurors
Administrators compile a master jury list from the chosen source records, certify it, and then randomly select names to mail qualification questionnaires and summonses; the process is designed to randomize selection from the compiled pool rather than to single out registered voters per se, meaning inclusion on a voter roll merely increases the chance of being drawn, not a guarantee of service [1] [4] [2].
6. Common misconceptions and limits of available reporting
Reporting and public discussion sometimes conflate “jury lists come from voter registrations” with “only voters are eligible,” but the sources reviewed show a consistent nuance: voter lists are a standard source but not the exclusive source; furthermore, reporting differs by jurisdiction and not every local practice is captured in the sources provided here, so precise practice in a specific county may differ from the general pattern described [1] [3] [7].
7. Bottom line and stakeholding perspectives
The direct answer: yes—jury lists commonly come from voter registrations, but courts generally supplement voter lists with driver’s license records and other public data to meet legal requirements for a representative jury pool; proponents of supplementation point to fairness and inclusiveness, while critics worry about administrative complexity and privacy tradeoffs when multiple data sources are combined [1] [2] [9].