Suffrage universel dédié à Ledru-Rollin, Frédéric Sorrieu, 1850

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, distinct from other rights to vote, is the right to vote gained through the democratic process. In English, suffrage and its synonyms are sometimes also used to mean the right to run for office (to be a candidate), but there are no established qualifying terms to distinguish between these different meanings of the term(s). The right to run for office is sometimes called (candidate) eligibility, and the combination of both rights is sometimes called full suffrage.^[1] In many other languages, the right to vote is called the active right to vote and the right to be voted for (to run for office) is called the passive right to vote. In English, these are sometimes called active suffrage and passive suffrage.^[2]

Suffrage is often conceived in terms of elections for representatives; however, suffrage applies equally to initiative and referendum. Suffrage describes not only the legal right to vote, but also the practical question of whether a question will be put to a vote. The utility of suffrage is reduced when important questions are decided unilaterally by elected or unelected representatives.

In most democracies, eligible voters can vote in elections of representatives. Voting on issues by initiative may be available in some jurisdictions but not others. For example, Switzerland permits initiatives at all levels of government whereas the United States does not offer initiatives at the federal level or in many states. That new constitutions must be approved by referendum is considered natural law.^{[citation needed]}

Typically citizens become eligible to vote after reaching the age of legal adulthood. Most democracies no longer extend different rights to vote on the basis of sex or race. Resident aliens can vote in some countries and in others exceptions are made for citizens of countries with which they have close links (e.g. some members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and the members of the European Union).

Types of suffrage[link]

Universal suffrage[link]

Where Universal suffrage exists, the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, wealth, or social status. It typically does not extend a right to vote to all residents of a region; distinctions are frequently made in regard to citizenship, age, and occasionally mental capacity or criminal convictions.

The short-lived Corsican Republic (1755–1769) was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage for all inhabitants over the age of 25. This was followed by other experiments in the Paris Commune of 1871 and the island republic of Franceville (1889). In 1893, New Zealand became the first major nation to achieve universal suffrage, and the Freedom in the World index lists New Zealand as the only free country in the world in 1893.^[3][4] In 1906, Finland became the second country in the world, and the first in Europe, to grant universal suffrage to its citizens.^[5]

Women's suffrage[link]

German election poster from 1919: Equal rights - equal duties!

Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote on the same terms as men. This was the goal of the suffragists and the suffragettes. Limited voting rights were gained by some women in Sweden, Britain, and some western U.S. states in the 1860s. In 1893, the British colony of New Zealand became the first self-governing nation to extend the right to vote to all adult women. In 1894 the women of South Australia achieved the right to both vote and stand for Parliament. The autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire was the first European nation to allow all women to both vote and run for parliament.^[6]

Equal suffrage[link]

Equal suffrage is sometimes confused with Universal suffrage, although its meaning is the removal of graded votes, where a voter could possess a number of votes in accordance with income, wealth or social status.^[7]

Census suffrage[link]

Also known as "censitary suffrage", the opposite of Equal suffrage, meaning that the votes cast by those eligible to vote are not equal, but are weighed differently according to the person's rank in the census (e.g., people with high income have more votes than those with a small income, or a stockholder in a company with more shares has more votes than someone with fewer shares). Suffrage may therefore be limited, usually to the propertied classes, but can still be universal, including, for instance, women or ethnic minorities, if they meet the census.

Compulsory suffrage[link]

Where Compulsory suffrage exists, those who are eligible to vote are required by law to do so. Thirty-two countries currently practice this form of suffrage.^[8]

Forms of exclusion from suffrage[link]

Religion[link]

In the aftermath of the Reformation it was common in European countries for people of disfavored religious denominations to be denied civil and political rights, often including the right to vote, to stand for election or to sit in parliament. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Roman Catholics were denied the right to vote from 1728 to 1793, and the right to sit in parliament until 1829. The anti-Catholic policy was justified on the grounds that the loyalty of Catholics supposedly lay with the Pope rather than the national monarch.

In England and Ireland, several Acts practically disenfranchised non-Anglicans or non-Protestants by imposing an oath before admission to vote or to run for office. The 1672 and 1678 Test Acts forbade non-Anglicans to hold public offices, the 1727 Disenfranchising Act took away Catholics' (Papists') voting rights in Ireland, which were restored only in 1788. Jews could not even be naturalized. An attempt was made to change this situation, but the Jewish Naturalization Act 1753 provoked such reactions that it was repealed the next year. Nonconformists (Methodists and Presbyterians) were only allowed to run for elections to the British House of Commons in 1828, Catholics in 1829 (following the Catholic Relief Act 1829), and Jews in 1858 (with the Emancipation of the Jews in England). Benjamin Disraeli could only begin his political career in 1837 because he had been converted to Anglicanism at the age of 12.

In several states in the U.S. after the Declaration of Independence, Jews, Quakers or Catholics were denied voting rights and/or forbidden to run for office.^[9] The Delaware Constitution of 1776 stated that "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat, or entering upon the execution of his office, shall (…) also make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: I, A B. do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.".^[10] This was repealed by article I, section 2 of the 1792 Constitution: "No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under this State.".^[11] The 1778 Constitution of the State of South Carolina stated that "No person shall be eligible to sit in the house of representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion",^[12] the 1777 Constitution of the State of Georgia (art. VI) that "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county (…) and they shall be of the Protestent (sic) religion".^[13] In Maryland, voting rights and eligibility were extended to Jews in 1828.^[14]

In Canada, several religious groups (Mennonites, Hutterites, Doukhobors) were disenfranchised by the wartime Elections Act of 1917, mainly because they opposed military service. This disenfranchisement ended with the end of the First World War, but was renewed for Doukhobors from 1934 (Dominion Elections Act) to 1955.^[15]

The first Constitution of modern Romania in 1866 provided in article 7 that only Christians could become Romanian citizens. Jews native to Romania were declared stateless persons. In 1879, under pressure of the Berlin Peace Conference, this article was amended granting non-Christians the right to become Romanian citizens, but naturalization was granted on a case-by-case basis and was subject to Parliamentary approval. An application took over ten years to process. Only in 1923 was a new constitution adopted, whose article 133 extended Romanian citizenship to all Jewish residents and equality of rights to all Romanian citizens.^[16]

In the Republic of Maldives, only Muslim citizens have voting rights and are eligible for parliamentary elections.^[17] On 25 November 2011, the UN human rights chief called on Maldivian authorities to remove the discriminatory constitutional provision that requires every citizen to be a Muslim.^[18]

Wealth, tax class, social class[link]

Until the nineteenth century, many Western democracies had property qualifications in their electoral laws; e.g. only landowners could vote (because the only tax for such countries was the property tax), or the voting rights were weighed according to the amount of taxes paid (as in the Prussian three-class franchise). Most countries abolished the property qualification for national elections in the late nineteenth century, but retained it for local government elections for several decades. Today these laws have largely been abolished, although the homeless may not be able to register because they lack regular addresses.

In the United Kingdom, until the House of Lords Act 1999, peers who were members of the House of Lords were excluded from voting for the House of Commons because they were not commoners. In Britain and some other monarchies, the sovereign is ineligible to vote in parliamentary elections.

Knowledge[link]

Sometimes the right to vote has been limited to people who had achieved a certain level of education or passed a certain test, e.g. "literacy tests" in some states of the US.^[19]

Race[link]

Various countries, usually with large non-white populations, have historically denied the vote to people of particular races or to non-whites in general. This has been achieved in a number of ways:

• Official - laws and regulations passed specifically disenfranchising people of particular races (for example, the U.S. in the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, or South Africa under apartheid).
• Indirect - nothing in law specifically prevents anyone from voting on account of their race, but other laws or regulations are used to exclude people of a particular race. In southern states of the U.S. before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Poll Taxes, literacy and other tests were used to disenfranchise African-Americans.^[19][20] Property qualifications have tended to disenfranchise non-whites, particularly if tribally-owned land is not allowed to be taken into consideration. In some cases (such as early colonial New Zealand) property qualifications were deliberately used to disenfranchise non-whites; in other cases this was an unintended (but usually welcome) consequence.
• Unofficial - nothing in law prevents anyone from voting on account of their race, but people of particular races are intimidated or otherwise prevented from exercising this right.

Age[link]

All modern democracies require voters to meet age qualifications to vote. Worldwide voting ages are not consistent, differing between countries and even within counties, usually between 16 and 21 years. Demeny voting would extend voting rights to everyone including children regardless of age.

Criminality[link]

Many countries restrict the voting rights of convicted criminals. Some countries, and some U.S. states, also deny the right to vote to those convicted of serious crimes after they are released from prison. In some cases (e.g. the felony disenfranchisement laws found in many U.S. states) the denial of the right to vote is automatic on a felony conviction; in other cases (e.g. France and Germany) deprivation of the vote is meted out separately, often limited to certain crimes such as those against the electoral system. In the Republic of Ireland, prisoners are allowed the right to vote, following the Hirst v UK (No2) ruling, and this was granted in 2006. Canada allowed only prisoners serving a term of less than 2 years the right to vote, but this was found unconstitutional in 2002 by the Supreme Court of Canada in Sauvé v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer), and all prisoners were allowed to vote as of the 2004 Canadian federal election.

Residency[link]

Under certain electoral systems elections are held within subnational jurisdictions, preventing persons who would otherwise be eligible from voting because they do not reside within such a jurisdiction, or because they live in an area which cannot participate. In the United States, residents of Washington, DC receive no voting representation in Congress, although they have (de facto) full representation in presidential elections. Residents of Puerto Rico have neither.

Sometimes citizens become ineligible to vote because they are no longer resident in their country of citizenship. For example, Australian citizens who have been outside Australia more than one and less than six years may excuse themselves from the requirement to vote in Australian elections while they remain outside Australia (voting in Australia is compulsory for resident citizens).^[21]

In some cases, a certain period of residence in a locality may required for the right to vote in that location. For example, in the United Kingdom up to 2001, each 15 February a new electoral register came into effect, based on registration as of the previous 10 October, with the effect of limiting voting to those resident five to seventeen months earlier depending on the timing of the election.

Nationality[link]

In most countries, suffrage is limited to citizens and, in many cases, permanent residents of that country. However, some members of supra-national organisations such as the Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union have given voting rights to citizens of all countries within that organisation. Until the mid-twentieth century, many Commonwealth countries gave the vote to all British citizens in the country, regardless of whether they were normally resident there. In most cases this was because there was no distinction between British and local citizenship. Several countries qualified this with restrictions preventing non-white British citizens such as Indians and British Africans from voting. Under European Union law, citizens of European Union countries can vote in each other's local and European Parliament elections on the same basis as citizens of the country in question.

Naturalization[link]

In some countries, naturalized citizens do not enjoy the right of vote and/or to be candidate, either permanently or for a determined period.

Article 5 of the 1831 Belgian Constitution made a difference between ordinary naturalization, and grande naturalisation. Only (former) foreigners who had been granted grande naturalisation were entitled to vote or be candidate for parliamentary elections or to be appointed as minister. However, ordinary naturalized citizens could vote for municipal elections.^[22] Ordinary naturalized citizens and citizens who had acquired Belgian nationality through marriage were only admitted to vote, but not to be candidate, for parliamentary elections in 1976. The concepts of ordinary and grande naturalization were suppressed from the Constitution in 1991.^[23]

In France, the 1889 Nationality Law barred those who had acquired the French nationality by naturalization or marriage from voting, eligibility and access to several public jobs. In 1938 the delay was reduced to 5 years.^[24] These discriminations, as well as others against naturalized citizens, were gradually abolished in 1973 (9 January 1973 law) and 1983.

In Morocco, a former French protectorate, and in Guinea, a former French colony, naturalized citizens are prohibited from voting for 5 years after their naturalization.^[25][26]

In the Federated States of Micronesia, Micronesian citizenship for a minimum of 15 years is an eligibility condition to be elected to the parliament.^[27]

In Nicaragua, Peru and the Philippines, only citizens by birth are eligible for being elected to the national legislature; naturalized citizens enjoy only voting rights.^[28][29][30]

In Uruguay, naturalized citizens have the right of eligibility to the parliament after 5 years.^[31]

In the United States, the President and Vice President must be natural-born citizens. All other governmental offices may be held by any citizen, although citizens may only run for Congress after an extended period of citizenship (seven years for the House of Representatives and nine for the Senate).

Function[link]

In France, an 1872 law, rescinded only by a 1945 decree, prohibited all army personnel from voting.^[32]

In the United Kingdom, public servants have to resign before running for an election.^[33]

The 1876 Constitution of Texas (article VI, section 1) stated that "The following classes of persons shall not be allowed to vote in this State, to wit: (…) Fifth--All soldiers, marines and seamen, employed in the service of the army or navy of the United States.".^[34]

Most countries that exercise separation of powers forbid a person to be a legislator and government official at the same time. Such provisions are found, for example, in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.

History of suffrage around the world[link]

Finland was the first nation in the world to give all citizens full suffrage, in other words the right to vote and to run for office (in 1906). New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant all citizens the right to vote (in 1893), but women did not get the right to run for the New Zealand legislature until 1919.

Australia[link]

• 1884 - Henrietta Dugdale forms the first Australian women’s suffrage society in Melbourne.
• 1894 - South Australian women eligible to vote.^[35]
• 1899 - Western Australian women eligble to vote.^[35]
• 1902 - Women able to vote federally, and in the state of New South Wales.
• 1921 - Edith Cowan elected to the West Australian Legislative Assembly as member for West Perth, the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament.^[36]
• 1962 - Aboriginal peoples guaranteed the right to vote in Commonwealth elections

Canada[link]

• 1916 - Manitoba becomes the first province where women have the right to vote in provincial elections.^{[citation needed]}
• 1917 - Wartime Elections Act - Gives voting rights to women with relatives fighting overseas. Voting rights are stripped from all "enemy aliens" (those born in enemy countries who arrived in Canada after 1902; see also Ukrainian Canadian internment).^[37] Military Voters Act - gave the vote to all soldiers, even non-citizens, and to females serving as nurses or clerks for the armed forces, but the votes are not for specific candidates but simply for or against the government.
• 1918 - Women gain full voting rights in federal elections.^[38]
• 1919 - Women gain the right to run for federal office.^[38]
• 1940 - Quebec becomes the last province where women's right to vote is recognized.
• 1947 - Racial exclusions against Chinese and Indo-Canadians lifted.
• 1948 - Racial exclusions against Japanese Canadians lifted.^[39]
• 1955^{[citation needed]} - Religious exclusions are removed from election laws.
• 1960^{[citation needed]} - Right to vote is extended unconditionally to First Nations people. (Previously they could vote only by giving up their status as First Nations people; this requirement was removed.)
• 1960 - Right to vote in advance is extended to all electors willing to swear they would be absent on election day.^{[citation needed]}
• 1970^{[citation needed]} - Voting age lowered from 21 to 18.
• 1982 - Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees all adult citizens the right to vote.
• 1988 - Supreme Court of Canada rules mentally ill patients have the right to vote.^[40]
• 1993^{[citation needed]} - Any elector can vote in advance.
• 2000 - legislation is introduced making it easier for people of no fixed address to vote
• 2002 - Prisoners given the right to vote in the riding in which they received their conviction. All adult Canadians except the Chief and Deputy Returning Officers can now vote in Canada.^[41]

Finland[link]

• 1906 - Full suffrage for all citizens adults aged 24 or older at beginning of voting year.
• 1921 - Suppression of property-based amount of votes on municipal level; equal vote for everybody.
• 1944 - Voting age lowered to 21 years.
• 1969 - Voting age lowered to 20 years.
• 1972 - Voting age lowered to 18 years.
• 1981 - Voting and eligibility rights were granted to Nordic Passport Union country citizens without residence condition for municipal elections
• 1991 - Voting and eligibility rights were granted to [extended to all foreign residents in 1991 with a 2 years residence condition for municipal elections
• 1995 - Residence requirement abolished for EU residents, in conformity with the European legislation (Law 365/95, confirmed by Electoral Law 714/1998)
• 1996 - Voting age lowered to 18 years at date of voting.
• 2000 - Section 14, al. 2 of the 2000 Constitution of Finland states that "Every Finnish citizen and every foreigner permanently resident in Finland, having attained eighteen years of age, has the right to vote in municipal elections and municipal referendums, as provided by an Act. Provisions on the right to otherwise participate in municipal government are laid down by an Act."^[42]

Hong Kong[link]

Minimum age to vote was reduced from 21 to 18 years in 1995. According to the Basic Law, the constitution of the territory since 1997, stipulates that all permanent residents (a status conferred by birth or by seven years of residence) have the right to vote. The right of permanent residents who have right of abode in other countries to stand in election is, however, restricted to 12 functional constituencies by the Legislative Council Ordinance of 1997.

The right to vote and the right to stand in elections are not equal. Less than 250,000 of the electorate are eligible to run in the 30 functional constituencies, of which 23 are elected by less than 80,000 of the electorate, and in the 2008 Legislative Council election 14 members were elected unopposed from these functional constituencies. The size of the electorates of some constituencies are less than 200. Only people who can demonstrate a connection to the sector are eligible to run in a functional constituency.

The Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill 2012, if passed, will amend the Legislative Council Ordinance to restrict the right to stand in Legislative Council by-elections in geographical constituencies and the District Council (Second) functional constituency. In addition to people who are mentally disabled, bankrupted or imprisoned, members who resigned from their seats will not have the right to stand within six months' time from their resignation. The bill is currently passing through the committee stage.

India[link]

• Universal suffrage for all adult citizens aged 21 or older was established under Art. 326 of the 1950 Constitution of India. The minimum age was reduced to 18 years by the Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988, with effect from 28 March 1989.

Japan[link]

New Zealand[link]

• 1853 - British government passes the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, granting limited self rule, including a bicameral parliament to the colony. The vote was limited to male British subjects aged 21 or over who owned or rented sufficient property, and were not imprisoned for a serious offence. Communally owned land was excluded from the property qualification, thus disenfranchising most Māori (indigenous) men.
• 1860 - Franchise extended to holders of miner's licenses who met all voting qualifications except that of property.
• 1867 - Māori seats established, giving Māori four reserved seats in the lower house. There was no property qualification; thus Māori men gained universal suffrage before other New Zealanders. The number of seats did not reflect the size of the Māori population, but Māori men who met the property requirement for general electorates were able to vote in them as well as in the Māori electorates.
• 1879 - Property requirement abolished.
• 1893 - Women given equal voting rights with men, making New Zealand the first nation in the world to allow adult women to vote.
• 1969 - Voting age lowered to 20.
• 1974 - Voting age lowered to 18.
• 1975 - Franchise extended to permanent residents of New Zealand, regardless of whether they have citizenship.
• 1996 - Number of Māori seats increased to reflect Māori population.
• 2010 - Prisoners stripped of all voting rights

South Africa[link]

• 1910 — The Union of South Africa is established by the South Africa Act 1909. The House of Assembly is elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies. The franchise qualifications are the same as those previously existing for elections of the legislatures of the colonies that comprised the Union. In the Transvaal and the Orange Free State the franchise is limited to white men. In Natal the franchise is limited to men meeting property and literacy qualifications; it was theoretically colour-blind but in practise nearly all non-white men were excluded. In the Cape Province the franchise is limited to men meeting property and literacy qualifications and is colour-blind; nonetheless 85% of voters are white. The rights of non-white voters in the Cape Province are protected by an entrenched clause in the South Africa Act requiring a two-thirds vote in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.
• 1930 — The Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 extends the right to vote to all white women over the age of 21.
• 1931 — The Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931 removes the property and literacy qualifications for all white men over the age of 21, but they are retained for non-white voters.
• 1936 — The Representation of Natives Act, 1936 removes black voters in the Cape Province from the common voters' roll and instead allows them to elect three "Native Representative Members" to the House of Assembly. Four Senators are to be indirectly elected by chiefs and local authorities to represent black South Africans throughout the country. The act is passed with the necessary two-thirds majority in a joint sitting.
• 1951 — The Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951 is passed by Parliament by an ordinary majority in separate sittings. It purports to remove coloured voters in the Cape Province from the common voters' roll and instead allow them to elect four "Coloured Representative Members" to the House of Assembly.
• 1952 — In Harris v Minister of the Interior the Separate Representation of Voters Act is annulled by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court because it was not passed with the necessary two-thirds majority in a joint sitting. Parliament passes the High Court of Parliament Act, 1952, purporting to allow it to reverse this decision, but the Appellate Division annuls it as well.
• 1956 — By packing the Senate and the Appellate Division, the government passes the South Africa Act Amendment Act, 1956, reversing the annulment of the Separate Representation of Voters Act and giving it the force of law.
• 1958 — The Electoral Law Amendment Act, 1958 reduces the voting age for white voters from 21 to 18.
• 1959 — The Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act, 1959 repeals the Representation of Natives Act, removing all representation of black people in Parliament.
• 1968 — The Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act, 1968 repeals the Separate Representation of Voters Act, removing all representation of coloured people in Parliament.
• 1969 — The first election of the Coloured Persons Representative Council (CPRC), which has limited legislative powers, is held. Every Coloured citizen over the age of 21 can vote for it, in first-past-the-post elections in single-member constituencies.
• 1978 — The voting age for the CPRC is reduced from 21 to 18.
• 1981 — The first election of the South African Indian Council (SAIC), which has limited legislative powers, is held. Every Indian South African citizen over the age of 18 can vote for it, in first-past-the-post elections in single-member constituencies.
• 1984 — The Constitution of 1983 establishes the Tricameral Parliament. Two new Houses of Parliament are created, the House of Representatives to represent coloured citizens and the House of Delegates to represent Indian citizens. Every coloured and Indian citizen over the age of 18 can vote in elections for the relevant house. As with the House of Assembly, the members are elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies. The CPRC and SAIC are abolished.
• 1994 — With the end of apartheid, the Interim Constitution of 1993 abolishes the Tricameral Parliament and all racial discrimination in voting rights. A new National Assembly is created, and every South African citizen over the age of 18 has the right to vote for the assembly. Elections of the assembly are based on party-list proportional representation. The right to vote is entrenched in the Bill of Rights.
• 1999 — In August and Another v Electoral Commission and Others the Constitutional Court rules that prisoners cannot be denied the right to vote without a law that explicitly does so.
• 2003 — The Electoral Laws Amendment Act, 2003 purports to prohibit convicted prisoners from voting.
• 2004 — In Minister of Home Affairs v NICRO and Others the Constitutional Court rules that prisoners cannot be denied the right to vote, and invalidates the laws that do so.
• 2009 — In Richter v Minister for Home Affairs and Others the Constitutional Court rules that South African citizens outside the country cannot be denied the right to vote.

United Kingdom[link]

King Henry VI of England established in 1432 that only male owners of property worth at least forty shillings, a significant sum, were entitled to vote in a county. The rules for boroughs were complex, but also restrictive. Changes were made to the details of the system, but there was no major reform until the Reform Act 1832. Suffrage in Scotland, an independent state until 1707, was also restricted. Suffrage in the United Kingdom was slowly changed over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries through the use of the Reform Acts and the Representation of the People Acts, culminating in universal suffrage, excluding children and convicted prisoners.

• Reform Act 1832 - extended voting rights to adult males who rented propertied land of a certain value, so allowing 1 in 7 males in the UK voting rights
• Reform Act 1867 - enfranchised all male householders, so increasing male suffrage to the United Kingdom
• Representation of the People Act 1884 - amended the Reform Act of 1867 so that it would apply equally to the countryside; this brought the voting population to 5,500,000, although 40% of males were still disenfranchised, whilst women could not vote
• Between 1885-1918 moves were made by the suffrage movement to ensure votes for women. However, the duration of the First World War stopped this reform movement. See also The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918.
• Representation of the People Act 1918 - the consequences of World War I persuaded the government to expand the right to vote, not only for the many men who fought in the war who were disenfranchised, but also for the women who helped in the factories and elsewhere as part of the war effort. Property restrictions for voting were lifted for men, who could vote at 21; however women's votes were given with these property restrictions, and were limited to those over 30 years old. This raised the electorate from 7.7 million to 21.4 million with women making up 40% of the electorate. Seven percent of the electorate had more than one vote. The first election with this system was the United Kingdom general election, 1918
• Representation of the People Act 1928 - this made women's voting rights equal with men, with voting possible at 21 with no property restrictions
• Representation of the People Act 1948 - the act was passed to prevent plural voting
• Representation of the People Act 1969 - extension of suffrage to those 18 and older
• The Representation of the People Acts of 1983, 1985 and 2000 further modified voting
• Electoral Administration Act 2006 - modified the ways in which people were able to vote and reduced the age of standing at a public election from 21 to 18.

United States[link]

In the United States, suffrage is determined by the separate states, not federally (Wyoming being the first state to instill suffrage). However, the "right to vote" is expressly mentioned in five Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These five Amendments limit the basis upon which the right to vote may be abridged or denied:

• 14th Amendment (1868): Regarding apportionment of Representatives.

• 15th Amendment (1870): "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

• 19th Amendment (1920): "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

• 23rd Amendment (1961): provides that residents of the District of Columbia can vote for the President and Vice-President.

• 24th Amendment (1964): "The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax."

• 26th Amendment (1971): "The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age."

Muslim world[link]

Etymology[link]

The word suffrage comes from Latin suffragium, meaning "vote", "political support", and the right to vote.^[43][44][45] The etymology of the Latin word is uncertain, with some sources citing Latin suffragari "lend support, vote for someone", from sub "under" + fragor "crash, din, shouts (as of approval)", related to frangere "to break" (related to fraction). Other sources say that attempts to connect suffragium with fragor cannot be taken seriously.^[46] Some etymologists think that it may be related to suffrago and may have originally meant an ankle bone or knuckle bone.^[46]

See also[link]

• Constituency
• Democracy
• Direct democracy
• The Famous Five (Canada)
• Voting age
• Voting rights in the United States
• Youth suffrage

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Neill Atkinson, Adventures in Democracy: A History of the Vote in New Zealand (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2003).
• Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2000). ISBN 0-465-02968-X
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: Reports on Voting (2005) ISBN 978-0-8377-3103-2
• "Smallest State in the World," New York Times, June 19, 1896, p 6
• A History of the Vote in Canada, Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, 2007.

External links[link]

• National Youth Rights Association
• Votes at 16 Campaign to Lower the Voting Age in the UK
• Suffrage in Canada
• Vote sizing is different from the suffrage (vote counting) reform movements, in that each voter’s political voice can be altered; whereas vote counting usually maintains that each voter only gets one (or equal amounts) vote.
• Women´s suffrage in Germany - january 19, 1919 - first suffrage (active and passive) for women in Germany

Alice Stokes Paul
Alice Paul, circa 1901
Born	(1885-01-11)January 11, 1885 Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey
Died	July 9, 1977(1977-07-09) (aged 92) Moorestown Township, New Jersey
Occupation	Suffragist
Parents	William Mickle Paul I (1850-1902) Tacie Parry
Relatives	Siblings: Helen, Parry and Willam

Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.^[1]

Activism[link]

Alice Paul and Helen Gardener, ca. 1908-1915

Alice Paul

Alice Paul received her undergraduate education from Swarthmore College, and then earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Paul received her LL.B from the Washington College of Law at American University in 1922.^[2] In 1927, she earned an LL.M, and in 1928, a Doctorate in Civil Laws from American University.^[3]

Women's Suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment[link]

After her graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Paul joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and was appointed Chairwoman of their Congressional Committee in Washington, DC.^[3] Her initial work was to organize a parade in Washington the day before President Wilson's inauguration, which was a success. After months of fundraising and raising awareness for the cause, membership numbers went up in 1913. Their focus was lobbying for a constitutional amendment to secure the right to vote for women. Such an amendment had originally been sought by suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who tried securing the vote on a state-by-state basis.

Paul's methods started to create tension between her and the leader of NAWSA, who felt that a constitutional amendment was not practical for the times. When her lobbying efforts proved fruitless, Paul and her colleagues formed the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1916 and began introducing some of the methods used by the suffrage movement in Britain. The National Woman's Party was funded by Alva Belmont who was a multi-millionaire socialite at the time. The NWP was accompanied by press coverage and the publication of the weekly Suffragist.^[3]

In the US presidential election of 1916, Paul and the NWP campaigned against the continuing refusal of President Woodrow Wilson and other incumbent Democrats to support the Suffrage Amendment actively. In January 1917, the NWP staged the first political protest to picket the White House. The picketers, known as "Silent Sentinels," held banners demanding the right to vote. This was an example of a non-violent civil disobedience campaign. In July 1917, picketers were arrested on charges of "obstructing traffic." Many, including Paul, were convicted and incarcerated at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia (later the Lorton Correctional Complex) and the District of Columbia Jail.^[3]

In a protest of the conditions in Occoquan, Paul commenced a hunger strike, which led to her being moved to the prison’s psychiatric ward and force-fed raw eggs through a feeding tube. This, combined with the continuing demonstrations and attendant press coverage, kept pressure on the Wilson administration.^[3] In January, 1918, Wilson announced that women's suffrage was urgently needed as a "war measure", and strongly urged Congress to pass the legislation. In 1920, after coming down to one vote in the state of Tennessee, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution secured the vote for women.

Equal Rights Amendment[link]

Paul was the original author of a proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution in 1923.^[3] The ERA would not find its way to the Senate until 1972 when it was approved by the Senate and submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. Approval by 38 states was required to ensure adoption of the amendment. Not enough states — only 35 — voted in favor in time for the deadline. However, efforts to pass the ERA passed by Congress in the 1970s are still afoot, as well as efforts to pass a new equality amendment, and almost half of the U.S. states have adopted the ERA into their state constitutions.^[4]

Death[link]

Paul died at the age of 92 on July 9, 1977 at the Quaker Greenleaf Extension Home in Moorestown Township, New Jersey, near her family home of Paulsdale. Before that she had a stroke in 1974, which disabled her.^[5]

Legacy[link]

Paul created a long legacy of woman’s rights. Her alma mater Swarthmore College named the Women's Center and a dormitory in her honor. Montclair State University in New Jersey has also named a building in her honor. Hilary Swank, in the HBO 2004 movie Iron Jawed Angels, portrayed Paul during her struggle for passage of the 19th Amendment. Two countries have honored her by issuing a postage stamp: Great Britain in 1981 and the United States in 1995, issuing a 78¢ Great Americans series stamp.

Paul is also scheduled to appear on a United States half-ounce $10 gold coin in 2012, as part of the so-called "First Spouse" program. A provision in the Presidential $1 Coin Program (see Pub.L. 109-145, 119 Stat. 2664, enacted December 22, 2005) directs that Presidential spouses be honored. As President Chester A. Arthur was a widower, Paul is representing Arthur's era.^[6]

In 1989, the Alice Paul Centennial Foundation was working to raise the funds needed to purchase the brick farmhouse in Mount Laurel Township where Paul was born.^[7]

See also[link]

• Iron Jawed Angels, 2004 film about Paul, Lucy Burns and their fight resulting in passage of the 19th Amendment.
• List of civil rights leaders
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• Paulsdale, birthplace and childhood home of Alice Paul in Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alice Paul

External links[link]

• R.Digati (Mar 23, 2002). "Alice Paul". Social Reformer, Suffragette. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6283941. Retrieved Aug 17, 2011.  (Westfield Friends Burial Ground, Cinnaminson, New Jersey)
• The Alice Paul Institute
• Alice Paul at Lakewood Public Library: Women In History
• The Sewall-Belmont House & Museum—Home of the historic National Woman's Party
• Biographical sketch at the University of Pennsylvania

Bernie Mac
Bernie Mac on the set of Soul Men in 2008 in Memphis, Tennessee
Birth name	Bernard Jeffrey McCullough
Born	(1957-10-05)October 5, 1957 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	August 9, 2008(2008-08-09) (aged 50) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, film, television
Nationality	American
Years active	1977–2008
Genres	Observational comedy, Satire, Black comedy, Insult comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday life, marriage, parenting, family, race relations, racism
Influences	Nipsey Russell, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor
Spouse	Rhonda McCullough (m. 1977–2008) «start: (1977)–end+1: (2009)»"Marriage: Rhonda McCullough to Bernie Mac" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Bernie_Mac)(his death,1 child)
Notable works and roles	Pastor Clever in Friday The Original Kings of Comedy Frank Catton in Ocean's Eleven Stan Ross in Mr. 3000 Bernie McCullough on The Bernie Mac Show Floyd Henderson in Soul Men

Bernard Jeffrey McCullough (October 5, 1957 – August 9, 2008), better known by his stage name, Bernie Mac, was an American actor and comedian. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mac gained popularity as a stand-up comedian. He joined comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy.

After briefly hosting the HBO show Midnight Mac, Mac appeared in several films in smaller roles. His most noted film role was as Frank Catton in the remake Ocean's Eleven and the titular character of Mr. 3000. He was the star of The Bernie Mac Show, which ran from 2001 through 2006, earning him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. His other films included starring roles in Booty Call, Friday, The Players Club, Head of State, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Bad Santa, Guess Who, Pride, Soul Men, Transformers and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

Mac suffered from sarcoidosis, a disease in which abnormal collections of chronic inflammatory cells (granulomas) form as nodules in multiple organs, particularly the lungs and lymph nodes. Lung scarring or infection may lead to respiratory failure and death. Mac had said the condition was in remission in 2005. His death on August 9, 2008 was caused by complications from pneumonia.

Early life[link]

Bernie Mac was born and raised in southern Chicago, Illinois by his single mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was 16.

He put on shows for neighborhood kids on the city's South Side. He attended Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Later, he moved to Tampa, Florida.^[1] During his 20s, he worked in a variety of jobs, including furniture mover and a UPS agent.^[1]

Career[link]

Bernie Mac's influences were from The Three Stooges and listening to stand-up comedians Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. Mac started as a stand-up comedian in Chicago's Cotton Club. After he won the Miller Lite Comedy Search at the age of 32, his popularity as a comedian began to grow. A performance on HBO's Def Comedy Jam thrust him into the spotlight. He opened for Dionne Warwick, Redd Foxx and Natalie Cole. He played a small role in 1994's House Party 3 as Uncle Vester. He also had a short-lived talk show on HBO titled Midnight Mac. Later, Mac also acted in minor roles and got his big break as "Pastor Clever" in Ice Cube's 1994 film Friday. Following that role, Mac had his first starring role as "Dollar Bill", a silly, slick-talking club owner in The Players Club. Mac was able to break from the traditional "black comedy" genre, having roles in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven and becoming the new Bosley for the Charlie's Angels sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In 2001, he gave an impressive performance in a supporting role as the villain "Gin Slagel, The Store Dick" in Bad Santa. He also starred in Guess Who?, a comedic remake of the film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and made an appearance in the 2007 film Transformers as the car salesman "Bobby Bolivia". In his later years, he hosted the reality television talent show Last Comic Standing. He also served as the voice of Zuba, Alex the Lion's long lost father in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. He co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the 2008 musical comedy Soul Men as "Floyd Henderson". His final film role was as "Jimmy Lunchbox", a flamboyant children's entertainer in the 2009 Disney film Old Dogs which was released a year after his death. He starred alongside John Travolta and Robin Williams in that particular film.

Bernie Mac at the Transformers premiere in 2007

In 2001, the Fox network gave Mac his own semi-autobiographical sitcom called The Bernie Mac Show portraying a fictional version of himself. In the show, he suddenly becomes custodian of his sister's three children after she enters rehab. It was a success, in part because it allowed Mac to stay true to his stand-up comedy roots, breaking the fourth wall to communicate his thoughts to the audience. The show contained many parodies of events in Bernie's actual life. It was not renewed after the 2005–2006 season. The series finale aired on April 14, 2006. However, the finale barely left a conclusion for the series, and no ending to the storyline of Bernie and Wanda trying to have a baby which had been abandoned a few episodes earlier. Among other awards, the show won an Emmy^[2] for "Outstanding Writing", the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the Humanitas Prize for television writing that promotes human dignity.^[3] His character on The Bernie Mac Show was ranked #47 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time".^[4]

In 2002, Bernie Mac starred as a retired baseball player in the film Mr. 3000. In the 2003 National League Championship Series, Mac sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field with the Chicago Cubs leading the Florida Marlins in the series 3 games to 2 and in Game 6 by a 2–0 score at the time (it would soon be 3–0 in the bottom of the 7th). Instead of saying "root, root, root for the Cubbies" Mac said, "root, root, root for the champions!" The Cubs lost the game and the series, with some fans claiming that Mac helped jinx the Cubs. Mac later admitted that he had hated the North Side's Cubs his whole life, being a die-hard fan of the South Side's White Sox, and was seen during the White Sox' 2005 World Series victory at U.S. Cellular Field.

Mac was number 72 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. On March 19, 2007, Mac told David Letterman on the CBS Late Show that he would retire from his 30-year career after he finished shooting the comedy film, The Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth, So Help Me Mac. "I'm going to still do my producing, my films, but I want to enjoy my life a little bit," Mac told Letterman. "I missed a lot of things, you know. I was a street performer for two years. I went into clubs in 1977. ...I was on the road 47 weeks out of the year."^[5]

Illness and death[link]

In August 2008, Mac was admitted to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. After a week of unsuccessful medical treatment, Mac died in the early morning hours of August 9 from sarcoidosis complicated by pneumonia. In the final three years of his life, Mac publicly disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in his lungs.^[6] Mac's public funeral was held a week later on August 16 at the House of Hope Church with over 9,000 people in attendance. Notable mourners were Chris Rock, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Don Cheadle, the cast members from his series and his Kings of Comedy fellows D. L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer and Steve Harvey. Mac's ashes were interred at the Washington Memory Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Illinois.

Tributes[link]

The first two of Mac's posthumous films, Soul Men and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, were released three months following his death. Mac's third and final posthumous film, Old Dogs, was released a year later. The 2008 Bud Billiken Parade, which was held in Chicago by the time of his death, was also dedicated to his memory.^[6] On the day of Mac's public funeral, his hometown's local television station WCIU-TV aired an exclusive television special, A Tribute to Bernie Mac, and had interviews with his former colleagues including Camille Winbush, Chris Rock, Joe Torry and some of his family members and close friends. Mac was also honored during "In Memoriam" montages at various award ceremonies following his death.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bernie Mac

Wikinews has related news: American comedian Bernie Mac has pneumonia American actor and comedian Bernie Mac dies at age 50

• Bernie Mac at the Internet Movie Database
• Bernie Mac at AllRovi
• Bernie Mac at Find a Grave
• Works by or about Bernie Mac in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Bernie Mac at Emmys.com

The Honourable Anson Chan Fang On-sang 陳方安生 GBM, GCMG, CBE, JP
Chief Secretary for Administration
In office 1 July 1997 – 30 April 2002
Succeeded by	Sir Donald Tsang
Chief Secretary
In office 29 November 1993 – 30 June 1997
Preceded by	Sir David Robert Ford
Member of the Legislative Council
In office 5 December 2007 – 30 September 2008
Preceded by	Ma Lik
Majority	54.84%
Personal details
Born	(1940-01-17) 17 January 1940 (age 72) Shanghai, Republic of China
Nationality	Chinese (Hong Kong)
Spouse(s)	Archibald Chan Tai-wing
Relations	Fang Shin-hau (father) Fang Zhaoling (mother) Harry Fang (uncle)
Children	Chan Wai-ling Chan Hong-wai
Alma mater	Sacred Heart Canossian College (1949–1957) St. Paul's Convent School (1957–1958) University of Hong Kong (1959–1962)
Religion	Roman Catholic

Anson Maria Elizabeth Chan Fang On-sang,^[1][2] GBM, GCMG,^[3] CBE,^[4] JP (born 17 January 1940 in Shanghai) was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for Hong Kong Island, succeeding the late legislator Ma Lik.

Before running for LegCo, she served as the head of Hong Kong's civil service before and after the territory's handover to the People's Republic of China from British colonial rule. Noted for her poise and smile, she was the first woman and the first Chinese to hold the second-highest governmental position in Hong Kong. Since November 2005 she has identified herself with the pro-democracy camp, and won the December 2007 by-election for the Hong Kong Island seat in the Legislative Council, as an independent.