Alabama Voter Registration records were created in accordance with the federal, post-Civil War Second Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867. The act required the commanding Union officer in each military district to register all resident male citizens, 21 years and older, to vote after they had taken an oath of loyalty to the United States. The process was to be completed before September 1, 1867. The 1867 voter registration records are significant because this is one of the first government documents to record African American males living in Alabama.

A few Alabama counties did not yet exist when voter registration was held in 1867: Chilton, Cullman, Escambia, Geneva, and Houston. No registration book for Clarke County survived, and the volumes for Montgomery County are missing. All the books for a number of other counties (Dallas, Franklin, Lauderdale, Limestone, Lowndes, Monroe, Randolph, and Washington) are missing information due to severe mold damage.