Americans Voted…. nearly forty thousand people cast more than three hundred thousand votes for the documents they believe have most influenced America. That is quite a number and response.

As people who love manuscripts and autographs, this project caught our attention. The People’s Vote, co-sponsored by the National Archives and Records Administration, National History Day and U.S. News & World Report, invited Americans of all ages and educational backgrounds to vote for 10 of 100 milestone documents. Most of the documents are from the holdings of the National Archives.  While the list was a defined set of 100 documents, you could “write in” a document not on the list. Check out the Vote for yourself.  https://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=vote .

The Archivist of the United States includes some interesting observations on the regions of the country, make up of the voting, and some of the “write in” documents included.  https://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?page=vote_comments

The People’s Vote is part of a much larger project titled Our Documents: A National Initiative on American History, Civics and Service.   As the group notes, “The purpose of Our Documents is to provide programs like The People’s Vote to engage Americans in a better understanding of the records that shaped our country.”