View source for Universal suffrage

{{Short description|Right of every person to an equal say in politics}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Elections}}
{{Universalism}}
'''Universal suffrage''' or '''universal franchise''' refers to the [[right to vote]] being available for all adults within a [[jurisdiction]]. The idea is often endorsed by the slogan "[[one man, one vote]]". 

For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion of [[Youth suffrage|the young]] and [[Non-citizen suffrage|non-citizens]] (among others).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Universal suffrage definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/universal-suffrage |access-date=1 February 2019 |website=www.collinsdictionary.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/universal+suffrage |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Brit">{{Cite encyclopedia |entry=Suffrage |encyclopedia=Britannica |entry-url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/suffrage |access-date=2023-01-18 |language=en}}</ref> At the same time, some insist that more inclusion is needed before suffrage can be truly universal.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rosenfeld |first=Sophia |date=2023-01-03 |title=Has the United States Ever Been a Democracy? |language=en-US |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jedediah-purdy-two-cheers-for-politics/ |access-date=2023-01-21 |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> Democratic theorists, especially those hoping to achieve more universal suffrage, support [[presumptive inclusion]], where the legal system would protect the voting rights of all subjects unless the government can clearly prove that [[disenfranchisement]] is necessary.<ref name=":022">{{Cite SSRN |last=Hamilton |first=Vivian E. |date=2012 |title=Democratic Inclusion, Cognitive Development, and the Age of Electoral Majority |language=en |ssrn=2086875 }}</ref> Universal full suffrage includes both the right to vote, also called active suffrage, and the right to be elected, also called [[Nomination rules|passive suffrage]].<ref>[https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/conlawnow/vol11/iss1/6/ Gwen Jordan, "We Must Forget Every Difference and Unite in a Common Cause - Votes For Woman": Lessons From the Woman Suffrage Movement (Or, Before the Notorious RBG, There Were the Notorious RGBs), 11 ConLawNOW 91 (2020).]</ref>

==History==
[[File:Election MG 3455.JPG|thumb|Voting is an important part of the formal [[democratic process]].]]
[[File:Hemicycle of Louise Weiss building of the European Parliament, Strasbourg.jpg|thumb|The [[European Parliament]] is the only international organ elected with universal suffrage (since 1979).]]
In the first modern democracies, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, which almost always meant a minority of the male population.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=Athenian Democracy |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Athenian_Democracy/ |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=[[World History Encyclopedia]] |date=3 April 2018 }}</ref> In some jurisdictions, other restrictions existed, such as requiring voters to practice a given religion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's True History of Religious Tolerance |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/ |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> In all modern democracies, the number of people who could vote has increased progressively with time.<ref name="Caramani">{{Cite book |last=Caramani |first=Daniele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UUfDgAAQBAJ&q=universal+male+suffrage&pg=PA53 |title=Elections in Western Europe 1815–1996 |date=13 February 2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-65508-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Constitutional Rights Foundation |url=https://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-8-1-b-who-voted-in-early-america |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=www.crf-usa.org |archive-date=9 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509115801/http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-8-1-b-who-voted-in-early-america |url-status=dead }}</ref> The 19th century saw many movements advocating "universal [male] suffrage", most notably in Europe and North America.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 May 2017 |title=White Manhood Suffrage |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/democracy-exhibition/vote-voice/getting-vote/demanding-vote/white-manhood-suffrage |access-date=21 May 2020 |website=National Museum of American History |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Caramani" /> Female suffrage was largely ignored until the latter half of the century, when movements began to thrive; the first of these was in New Zealand, in which all adult women of all ethnicities gained the right to vote in 1893.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=McLintock |first1=Alexander Hare |last2=Patricia Ann Grimshaw |first2=M. A. |last3=Taonga |first3=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu |title=WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/womens-suffrage-movement |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. |language=en}}</ref> A year later, South Australia granted all citizens the right to vote and stand for election, making it the first place in the world where women could stand as candidates for election to parliament. From there, this groundbreaking reform set a precedent for broader suffrage rights worldwide. However, voting rights were often limited to those of the dominant ethnicity.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pickles |first=Katie |title=NZ was first to grant women the vote in 1893, but then took 26 years to let them stand for parliament |url=http://theconversation.com/nz-was-first-to-grant-women-the-vote-in-1893-but-then-took-26-years-to-let-them-stand-for-parliament-123467 |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=The Conversation |date=18 September 2019 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=SA |first=Department of Human Services |title=The South Australian women's suffrage campaign |url=https://officeforwomen.sa.gov.au/womens-policy/125th-anniversary-of-suffrage/the-south-australian-womens-suffrage-campaign |access-date=2022-02-18 |website=officeforwomen.sa.gov.au |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grimshaw |first=Patricia |date=2000 |title=Settler Anxieties, Indigenous Peoples, and Women's Suffrage in the Colonies of Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai'i, 1888 to 1902 |journal=Pacific Historical Review |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=553–572 |doi=10.2307/3641224 |issn=0030-8684 |jstor=3641224}}</ref>

In the United States, after the principle of "[[One person, one vote]]" was established in the early 1960s by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] under [[Earl Warren]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldman |first=Ari L. |date=21 November 1986 |title=One Man, One Vote: Decades of Court Decisions |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/21/nyregion/one-man-one-vote-decades-of-court-decisions.html |access-date=14 January 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pederson |first=William D. |title=Earl Warren |url=https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1370/earl-warren |access-date=14 January 2020 |website=www.mtsu.edu |language=en}}</ref> the [[U.S. Congress]], together with the [[Warren Court]], continued to protect and expand the [[Voting rights in the United States|voting rights of all Americans]], especially African Americans, through the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] and several Supreme Court rulings.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=We Shall Overcome – The Players |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/prize.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121214093334/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/prize.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 December 2012 |access-date=5 October 2019 |website=www.nps.gov}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections |url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/48 |access-date=5 October 2019 |website=Oyez |language=en}}</ref> In addition, the term "[[suffrage]]" is also associated specifically with [[women's suffrage in the United States]]; a movement to extend the franchise to women began in the mid-19th century and culminated in 1920,{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} when the United States ratified the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], guaranteeing the right of women to vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title=19th Amendment |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxix |access-date=24 May 2019 |website=LII / Legal Information Institute |language=en}}</ref> It would be 1928 before voting rights were guaranteed to all women in the [[United Kingdom|UK]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women Get The Vote |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/ |website=parliament.uk}}</ref>

=== In more detail ===
France, under the [[French Constitution of 1793|1793 Jacobin constitution]], was the first major country to enact suffrage for all adult males, though it was never formally used in practice (the constitution was immediately suspended before being implemented, and the [[1795 French Directory election|subsequent election]] occurred in 1795 after the [[Thermidorian Reaction|fall of the Jacobin government]] in 1794 discredited most ideas associated with them, including that constitution). Elsewhere in the [[Francophone]] world, the [[Republic of Haiti]] legislated for universal male suffrage in 1816.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Dubois
 | first1 = Laurent
 | author-link1 = Laurent Dubois
 | title = Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=drU3HlesN5kC
 | location = New York
 | publisher = Henry Holt and Company
 | date = 2012
 | pages = 60–61
 | isbn = 9780805095623
 | access-date = 19 September 2019
| quote = In 1816, the Republic of Haiti put into place a new constitution [...]. The creation of the Chamber of Deputies was a significant advance for democratic government: the deputies were elected by universal male suffrage, with no restrictions on the right to vote [...].
}}
</ref> The [[Second French Republic]] instituted adult male suffrage after the [[French Revolution of 1848|revolution of 1848]].<ref name="Caramani" />

Following the French revolutions, movements in the Western world toward more universal suffrage occurred in the early 19th century, and focused on removing property requirements for voting. In 1867 Germany (the [[North German Confederation]]) enacted suffrage for all adult males. In the United States following the [[American Civil War]], slaves were freed and [[Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|granted rights of citizens]], including [[Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|suffrage for adult males]] (although several states established restrictions largely, though not completely, diminishing these rights). In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the focus of the [[Women's suffrage|universal suffrage movement]] came to include the extension of the [[Women's suffrage|right to vote to women]], as happened from the post-Civil War era in several Western [[States of the United States|states]] and during the 1890s in a number of British colonies.

On 19 September 1893 the British Governor of New Zealand, [[David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow|Lord Glasgow]], gave assent to a new electoral act, which meant that New Zealand became the first British-controlled colony in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage|title= new zealand women and the vote|website= nzhistory.govt.nz|access-date= 30 June 2019}}</ref> This was followed shortly after by the colony of [[South Australia]] in 1894, which was the second to allow women to vote, but the first colony to permit women to stand for election as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/womens-suffrage|title=Women's suffrage|access-date=1 December 2019}}</ref> In 1906, the autonomous Russian territory known as [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] (which became the Republic of Finland in 1917) became the first territory in the world to implement unrestricted universal suffrage, as women could stand as candidates, unlike in New Zealand, and without indigenous ethnic exclusion, like in Australia. It also led to the election of the world's first female members of parliament [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|the following year]].<ref name="eduskunta.fi">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eduskunta.fi/EN/tietoaeduskunnasta/historia/Pages/default.aspx|title=Eduskunnan lyhyt historia|website=www.eduskunta.fi}}</ref><ref name="web.archive.org">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720175612/http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|archive-date=20 July 2011|title=Centenary of women's full political rights in Finland|date=20 July 2011}}</ref> Federal states and colonial or autonomous territories prior to [[World War I]] have multiple examples of early introduction of universal suffrage. However, these legal changes were effected with the permission of the British, Russian or other government bodies, which were considered the sovereign nation at the time. For this reason, Australia (1901), New Zealand (1908) and Finland (1917) all have different dates of achieving independent nationhood.

[[File:Léon Bienvenu - Le Suffrage universel.jpg|thumb|Satirical drawing by [[Touchatout]] depicting the birth of universal suffrage, "one of the most sacred rights of Man, born in France on 24 february 1848."]]
The [[First French Republic]] adopted universal male suffrage briefly in 1792; it was one of the first national systems that abolished all property requirements as a prerequisite for allowing men to register and vote. Greece recognized full male suffrage in 1844.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Greece|title=Greece – Building the nation, 1832–1913|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=25 June 2023 }}</ref> Spain recognized it in the [[Spanish Constitution of 1869|Constitution of 1869]] and France and Switzerland have continuously done so since the [[1848 Revolution]] (for resident male citizens). Upon independence in the 19th century, several Latin-American countries and Liberia in Africa initially extended suffrage to all adult males, but subsequently restricted it based on property requirements. The [[German Empire]] implemented full male suffrage in 1871.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iub.edu/~paris10/ParisOSS/Day10_Sex_and_Gender/d7_Offen.html|title=Karen Offen, "Women, Citizenship, and Suffrage in France Since 1789"|website=www.iub.edu|access-date=21 December 2019|archive-date=1 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401105757/http://www.iub.edu/~paris10/ParisOSS/Day10_Sex_and_Gender/d7_Offen.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the United States, the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], ratified in 1870 during the [[Reconstruction era]], provided that "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." This amendment aimed to guarantee the right to vote to African Americans, many of whom had been [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved]] in the [[Southern United States|South]] prior to the end (1865) of the [[American Civil War]] and the 1864–1865 [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|abolition of slavery]]. Despite the amendment, however, [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|blacks were disfranchised]] in the former Confederate states [[Compromise of 1877|after 1877]]; Southern officials ignored the amendment and blocked black citizens from voting through a variety of devices, including [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]], [[literacy tests]], and [[grandfather clause]]s;<ref name="Davidson">Chandler Davidson, "The Recent Evolution of Voting Rights Law Affecting Racial and Language Minorities"  in ''Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965–1990'' (Princeton University Press, 1994: eds. Chandler Davidson & Bernard Grofman), pp. 21–22.</ref> violence and [[Terrorism in the United States|terrorism]] were used to intimidate some would-be voters.<ref>Gary Gershman, "Fifteenth Amendment (1870)" in ''Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic'' (eds. Charles A. Gallagher, Cameron D. Lippard), pp. 441–43.</ref> Southern blacks did not effectively receive the right to vote until the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].<ref name="Davidson"/>

In 1893 the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world (except for the short-lived 18th-century [[Corsican Republic]]) to grant active universal suffrage by giving women the right to vote. It did not grant universal full suffrage (the right to both vote and be a candidate, or both active and passive suffrage) until 1919.<ref name="Nohlen" />

In 1902, the Commonwealth of Australia became the first country to grant full suffrage for women, i.e. the rights both to vote and to run for office.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-suffragettes |title=Australian suffragettes |access-date=17 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310153450/http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-suffragettes |archive-date=2016-03-10}}</ref> However, Australia did not implement universal suffrage at this time – nationwide voting rights for [[Aboriginal Australians]] were not established until 1962, before that varying by state.

Many societies in the past have denied or abridged [[Political representation]] on the basis of race or ethnicity, related to discriminatory ideas about [[Non-citizen suffrage|citizenship]]. For example, in [[apartheid]]-era South Africa, non-White people could generally not vote in national elections until the first [[1994 South African general election|multi-party elections in 1994]]. However, a nonracial franchise existed under the [[Cape Qualified Franchise]], which was replaced by a number of [[Coloured vote constitutional crisis|separate MPs]] in 1936 (Blacks) and 1958 (Coloureds). Later, the [[Tricameral Parliament]] established separate chambers for Whites, Coloureds and Indians. Rhodesia enacted a similar statute to the former in [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|its proclaimed independence]] of 1965, which however allowed a smaller number of representatives for the considerably larger Black majority (under its 1961 constitution, the voting classes had been based on socio-economic standards, which marginalized most Black and a few White voters to a separate set of constituencies, under the principle of [[weighted voting]]; this was replaced in 1969 by an explicitly racial franchise, with delegated all Blacks to the 'B' voters roll).

==Women's suffrage==
{{main|Women's suffrage}}
In [[Sweden]] (including Swedish-ruled [[Finland]]), women's suffrage was granted during the [[Age of Liberty]] from 1718 until 1772.<ref>Karlsson Sjögren, Åsa, Männen, kvinnorna och rösträtten: medborgarskap och representation 1723–1866 [Men, women and suffrage: citizenship and representation 1723–1866], Carlsson, Stockholm, 2006 (in Swedish)</ref>

In [[Corsican Republic|Corsica]], women's suffrage was granted in 1755 and lasted until 1769.<ref name="Kulinski">A. Kulinski, K. Pawlowski. "The Atlantic Community – The Titanic of the XXI Century". p. 96. WSB-NLU. 2010</ref>

Women's suffrage (with the same property qualifications as for men) was granted in [[New Jersey]] in 1776 (the word "inhabitants" was used instead of "men" in the 1776 Constitution) and rescinded in 1807.

The [[Pitcairn Islands]] granted restricted women's suffrage in 1838. Various other countries and states granted restricted women's suffrage in the later half of the nineteenth century, starting with [[South Australia]] in 1861.

The first unrestricted women's suffrage in a major country was granted [[Women's suffrage in New Zealand|in New Zealand]] in 1893.<ref name="Nohlen">{{cite book |last=Nohlen |first=Dieter |author-link=Dieter Nohlen |date=2001 |title=Elections in Asia and the Pacific: South East Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific |page=14 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> The women's suffrage bill was adopted mere weeks before the general election of 1893. Māori men had been granted suffrage in 1867, white men in 1879. The ''[[Freedom in the World]]'' index lists New Zealand as the only free country in the world in 1893.<ref name="Kulinski"/>

[[South Australia]] first granted women suffrage and allowed them to stand for parliament [[Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894|in 1894]].

In 1906, the autonomous [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] became the first territory to give women full political rights, i.e. both the right to vote and to run for office, and was the second in the world and the first in Europe to give women the right to vote.<ref name="eduskunta.fi"/><ref name="web.archive.org"/> The world's first female members of parliament were [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|elected]] in Finland the following year, 1907. After the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Weimar Constitution established universal suffrage in 1919 with a minimum voting age of 20.

The UK gave women the right to vote at the same age as men (21) in 1928.

In 1931, the [[Second Spanish Republic]] allowed women the right of [[passive suffrage]] with three women being elected.

During a discussion on extending women's right to active suffrage, the Radical Socialist [[Victoria Kent]] confronted the Radical [[Clara Campoamor]]. Kent argued that Spanish women were not yet prepared to vote and, since they were too influenced by the [[Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic|Catholic Church]], they would vote for right-wing candidates. Campoamor however pleaded for women's rights regardless of political orientation. Her point finally prevailed and, in the election of 1933, the political right won with the vote of citizens of any sex over 23. Both Campoamor and Kent lost their seats.

In Switzerland, [[Women's suffrage in Switzerland|women's suffrage]] was introduced at the federal level, by a nationwide (male) referendum in 1971, but the referendum did not give women the right to vote at the local Cantonal level. The Cantons independently voted to grant women the right to vote. The first Canton to give women the right to vote was [[Canton of Vaud|Vaud]] in 1959. The last Canton, [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]], had a centuries-old law forbidding women to vote. This was only changed in 1990 when Switzerland's Federal Court ordered the Canton to grant women the right to vote.<ref name=Appenzell>{{cite web |url=http://www.ai.ch/de/portrait/geschichte/welcome.php?action=showinfo&info_id=219 |title=1990 - Einführung des Frauenstimmrechtes |publisher=Kanton Appenzell Innerrhoden |language=de |location=Appenzell, Switzerland |access-date=2016-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822025740/http://www.ai.ch/de/portrait/geschichte/welcome.php?action=showinfo&info_id=219 |archive-date=22 August 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Youth suffrage==
{{main|Youth suffrage}}

The movement to lower the [[voting age]] many consider an aspect of universal suffrage<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pearse |first=Harry |title=Why aren't children allowed to vote? An expert debunks the arguments against |url=http://theconversation.com/why-arent-children-allowed-to-vote-an-expert-debunks-the-arguments-against-187497 |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=The Conversation |date=28 December 2022 |language=en}}</ref> that the [[youth rights movement]] has helped to lead. Organizations such as the [[National Youth Rights Association]] are active in the United States to advocate for a lower voting age, with some success,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youthrights.org/blog/congress-votes-on-lowering-voting-age-to-16/ |title=Congress Votes on Lowering Voting Age to 16 |last=Conner |first=Brian |date=14 March 2019 |website=youthrights.org |publisher=National Youth Rights Association |access-date=4 April 2019 |quote=NYRA has been campaigning for a lower voting age since we were founded in 1998, and we are overjoyed that pro-youth policies are finally close to passing on the national level thanks to our years of local advocacy in towns such as Takoma Park, MD where we helped lower the voting age in 2013.}}</ref> among other issues related to youth rights. A related movement, [[suffrage for Americans with disabilities]] provides important precedents and [[intersectionality]] with the movement to extend voting rights to children and youth.<ref name=":022" />

==Non-resident citizen voting==
{{Main|Non-resident citizen voting}}

Some jurisdictions don't require to be present in the country of citizenship to vote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wellman |first1=Elizabeth Iams |last2=Allen |first2=Nathan W. |last3=Nyblade |first3=Benjamin |date=2023 |title=The Extraterritorial Voting Rights and Restrictions Dataset (1950-2020) |journal=[[Comparative Political Studies]] |volume=56 |issue=6 |pages=910 |doi=10.1177/00104140221115169 |via=Sage Publications|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== Multiple citizenship and non-citizen suffrage ==
{{Main|Multiple citizenship|Non-citizen suffrage}}

Some persons have the right to vote in multiple countries due to [[multiple citizenship]] or due to [[non-citizen suffrage]] and residency status.<ref name="x226">{{cite journal | last1=Umpierrez de Reguero | first1=Sebastián | last2=Finn | first2=Victoria | title=Migrants' intention to vote in two countries, one country, or neither | journal=Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties | volume=34 | issue=3 | date=2 July 2024 | issn=1745-7289 | doi=10.1080/17457289.2023.2189727 | pages=466–489| hdl=1814/75483 | hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==Dates by country==

{{Outdated as of|2021|08|topic=Afghanistan}}

States have granted and revoked universal suffrage at various times.

''Note: this chart does not indicate periods of autocratic rule (when voting has little or no power).''
* '''Adult citizens''' There are no distinctions between citizens over a certain age in any part of its territories due to gender, literacy, wealth, social status, religion, race, or ethnicity.
* '''Male''' is for all males over a certain age in the majority ethnic or sectarian group irrespective of literacy, wealth, or social status.
* '''Female''' is for when all women over a certain age can vote on the same terms as men.
* '''Ethnicity''' is for when all eligible voters over a certain age can vote on the same terms as the majority or politically dominant group irrespective of religion, race, or ethnicity.

Since historically one group or another might have lost suffrage rights only to regain them later on, this table lists the last uninterrupted time from the present a group was granted the right to vote if that group's suffrage has been fully restored.
{{noprint|''Note: The table can be sorted alphabetically or chronologically using the [[File:Sort both.gif|class=noviewer]] icons.''}}

{{Sticky header}}
{| class="sortable wikitable sticky-header"
|+ Suffrage milestones by country or territory
! Country or territory
! Adult citizens
! Male
! Female
! Ethnicity
! class="unsortable"| Notes
|-
| Afghanistan
| 2004
| 2004
| 2004
| 2004
| In 1919 [[Amanullah Khan|King Amanullah Khan]] "created Afghanistan's first constitution, which abolished slavery, created a legislature, guaranteed secular education, and instituted equal rights for men and women."<ref name="centralasiainstitute.org">{{Cite web|url=https://centralasiainstitute.org/womens-voting-rights/|title=The Fight for Women's Voting Rights|work=Central Asia Institute |date=8 November 2017 |author1=Amcs-Webmaster }}</ref> By 1929 he was overthrown along with his constitution and all voting rights were removed. The [[1964 Constitution of Afghanistan]] transformed Afghanistan into a modern democracy.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1573181.stm | work=BBC News | title=Profile: Ex-king Zahir Shah | date=1 October 2001}}</ref> In 1979 the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan]] and toppled the government, leaving in 1989. The Taliban took control of the government in 1996. But it wasn't until after the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|U.S. invasion of Afghanistan]] that people regained the right to vote in 2004<ref name="centralasiainstitute.org"/>
|-
| Argentina
| 1952
| 1853
| 1952
| 1853
| Universal male suffrage was instituted in 1853.  Universal, ''secret'' and mandatory suffrage for male citizens over 18 years of age was granted by the [[Sáenz Peña Law]] (General Election Law) of 1912. It was amended to include female citizens in 1947 but became effective in 1952.
|-
| Armenia
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| Since the establishment of the [[First Republic of Armenia]]. June 21 and 23, 1919, first direct parliamentary elections were held in Armenia under universal suffrage - every person over the age of 20 had the right to vote regardless of gender, ethnicity or religious beliefs and 3 women were elected as MPs.<ref>{{cite web|author=Badalyan, Lena|date=5 December 2018|title=Women's Suffrage: The Armenian Formula|url=https://chai-khana.org/en/womens-suffrage-the-armenian-formula|access-date=30 November 2018|publisher=Chai Khana|archive-date=1 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201005054/https://chai-khana.org/en/womens-suffrage-the-armenian-formula|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Harutyunyan">{{cite web|last1=Harutyunyan|first1=Anahit|date=8 March 2018|script-title=hy:Առաջին խորհրդարանի (1919-1920) երեք կին պատգամավորները|url=https://www.aniarc.am/2018/03/08/women-1919-1920-mp/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504044633/https://www.aniarc.am/2018/03/08/women-1919-1920-mp/|archive-date=4 May 2018|access-date=11 January 2019|website=ANI Armenian Research Center|publisher=Armenian Research Center for Anteriology|location=Yerevan|language=hy|quote=Three female deputies of the first parliament (1919-1920)}}</ref><ref>[[Simon Vratsian]] ''Hayastani Hanrapetutyun'' (The Republic of Armenia, ''Arm.''), Yerevan, 1993, p. 292.</ref>
|-
| [[Suffrage in Australia|Australia]]
| 1965
| 1901
| [[Women's suffrage in Australia|1902]]
| [[Voting rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples|1965]]
| In 1856, the parliament of the self-governing [[Colony of South Australia]] enacted legislation providing for universal male suffrage for all male residents over the age of 21.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/num_act/ca2o19v18556265/ |title=Constitution Act (No 2 of 19 Vic, 1855-6) |date=4 January 1856 |access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Australian voting history in action | website=[[Australian Electoral Commission]] | url=https://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/25/theme1-voting-history.htm | access-date=9 March 2022}}</ref> The parliaments of the [[Colony of Victoria]] and the [[Colony of New South Wales]] followed suit by enacting legislation providing universal male suffrage in 1857 and 1858, respectively.
In 1894, the parliament of the Colony of South Australia enacted legislation providing female adults franchise; giving all adults of the age of majority the right to vote in elections, and for any elector to stand for high office.

In 1901, the self-governing colonies of Australia [[Federation of Australia|federated]]. In 1902, the new federal parliament legislated for an adult franchise and the right of electors to stand for and occupy any office for which they could directly vote. This franchise, including voting rights for non-Indigenous women, was established by the ''[[Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women's Suffrage |url=https://www.nla.gov.au/digital-classroom/senior-secondary/shoulder-shoulder-feminism-australia/womens-suffrage |access-date=2022-07-09 |website=National Library of Australia |language=en}}</ref> Voting rights for Indigenous Australians varied depending on state legislation. The ''Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962'' granted Indigenous Australians the right to vote in federal elections. In 1965, the Queensland parliament extended voting rights to all Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Compulsory enrolment was extended to Indigenous Australians nationwide in 1984.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Indigenous Australians' right to vote |url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/indigenous-australians-right-to-vote |access-date=2022-07-09 |website=National Museum of Australia |language=en}}</ref>
|-
| Austria
| 1918
| 1896
| [[Women's suffrage in Austria|1918]]
| 1907
| Universal suffrage 1896, universal and equal suffrage (removing multiple voting) 1907. Before 1907 unmarried landholding women were allowed to vote. After the [[Central Powers]]' defeat in [[World War I]] universal suffrage including women.
|-
| Azerbaijan
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| Joined the nascent [[Soviet Union]]<ref name="ussr" group="nb">While the USSR was not formally founded until 1922, a group of socialist republics under the influence of Soviet Russia existed for several years before that.</ref> in 1920.
|-
| Bahamas
| 1961
| 1958
| 1961
| 1807
| Legislation passed in the house in 1961 allowing for Universal adult suffrage in The Bahamas. All men could vote equally in The Bahamas in 1958. In 1807 legislation passed in the house of assembly giving free persons of color the right to vote.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} Electorate is less than half of citizenry.{{why|date=June 2024}}
|-
| Bahrain
| 1975
| 1975
| 1975<ref name="Womenshistory.about.com">{{cite web|url=http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrage/a/intl_timeline_3.htm|title=Woman Suffrage Timeline International – Winning the Vote Around the World|date=25 April 1908|publisher=Womenshistory.about.com|access-date=6 May 2013|archive-date=12 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712053951/http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrage/a/intl_timeline_3.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| –
| Universal suffrage in 1973, although parliament was suspended and dissolved in 1975 for approximately 30 years.
|-
| Barbados
| 1951
| 1951
| 1951
| 1831
| In 1831, legislation passed in the house of assembly giving free men of color the right to vote with an income qualification stipulation . In 1943, women were given the right to vote as men as long as they passed the income qualification. Legislation passed in the house in 1951 allowing for universal adult suffrage in Barbados. In 1964, voting age was reduced from age 21 to 18.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History {{!}} Electoral & Boundaries Commission |url=https://www.electoral.barbados.gov.bb/25104-2/ |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=Electoral & Boundaries Commission Barbados |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The House of Assembly |url=https://www.barbadosparliament.com/main_page_content/show_content/7 |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=www.barbadosparliament.com}}</ref>
|-
| Belgium
| 1948
| 1893
| 1948
| 1893
| Universal [[Suffrage#Census suffrage|census suffrage]] for all men aged 25 and above since 1893. Depending on education and amount of taxes paid, males could cast between 1 and 3 votes. Widows were also allowed to vote but lost their voting rights after remarrying. Universal single suffrage for males since 1918. Universal suffrage for women was finally introduced in 1948.
|-
| Bhutan
| 2008
| 2008
| 2008
| 2008
|
|-
| Bolivia
| 1952
| 1938
| 1952
| 1952
| Universal suffrage [[Elections in Bolivia|granted by decree]] of 1952; first elections in 1956; women's suffrage coincided with abolition of literacy requirements.
|-
| Brazil
| 1985
| 1891
| 1932
| 1891
| Male suffrage from [[Brazilian Constitution of 1891]] excluding beggars, women, illiterates, lowest ranking soldiers and members of monastic orders.<ref>[[:pt:Constituição brasileira de 1891]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2021}}<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Constituicao/Constituicao91.htm| title = Constitui o91}}</ref><ref>[[History of the Constitution of Brazil]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2021}} Women from 1932. Suffrage was further expanded to all but illiterate people in 1946.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicao46.htm| title = Constitui o46}}</ref> Illiterates remained without the right to vote until 1985.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/emendas/emc_anterior1988/emc25-85.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070706120637/http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/Constituicao/Emendas/Emc_anterior1988/emc25-85.htm| archive-date = 2007-07-06| title = Emc25}}</ref>
|-
| Brunei
| –
| –
| –
| –
| No elections.
|-
| Bulgaria
| 1945
| 1879
| 1945
| 1879
| Universal suffrage including women and men serving in the Army was instituted by the government of the [[Fatherland Front (Bulgaria)|Fatherland front]].
|-
| Burma/Myanmar
| 1990
| 1990
| 1990
| 1990
| Last free elections held in 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12992883 |work=BBC News |title=Burma timeline |date=30 March 2011}}</ref> New elections held in [[2015 Myanmar general election|2015]], which elected 75% of legislators, while 25% remain appointed by the [[Tatmadaw|military]].
|-
| Canada
| 1960
| 1920
| [[Women's suffrage in Canada|1920]]
| 1960
| In 1920, Canada enacted suffrage for federal elections for male and female citizens, with exceptions for [[Chinese Canadians]] and [[Aboriginal Canadians]];<ref>{{cite web|title=Equality and Justice – for Some|url=http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/en/timePortals/milestones/23mile.asp|publisher=Canadian Human Rights Commission|access-date=19 July 2015|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923203122/http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/en/timePortals/milestones/23mile.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> for provincial elections, female suffrage was established between 1916 ([[Manitoba]], Alberta, [[Saskatchewan]]) and 1940 ([[Quebec]]). Chinese Canadians, regardless of gender, were given suffrage in 1947, while Aboriginal Canadians were not allowed to vote until 1960, regardless of gender. [[Newfoundland (Dominion)|Newfoundland]] which joined Canada in 1949 had universal male suffrage in 1925.
|-
| Chile
| 1970
| 1970
| [[Women's suffrage in Chile|1970]]
| 1970
| From 1888 suffrage for men of any race over 21 who can read. From 1925 full suffrage for men aged 21 and above and able to read and write. 1934 women get to vote on Municipal Elections. From 1949 universal suffrage for men and women aged 21 and above and able to read and write. From 1970 suffrage for men and women aged 18 and older whether or not they can read.
|-
| China
| 1953
| 1947
| 1953
| 1947
| Officially Universal suffrage was granted under the 1947 [[Constitution of the Republic of China]] when the First National Assembly (disbanded 2005) elections were held in 1947. But women were not explicitly enfranchised until 1953 thanks to the first [[Elections in China|Electoral Law of the People's Republic of China]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.insider.com/when-women-around-the-world-got-the-right-to-vote-2019-2|title = When women got the right to vote in 25 places around the world|website = [[Insider.com]]}}</ref> The general populace can only vote for [[Elections in China#Direct elections|local elections]]. National elections for president and premier are held by the [[National People's Congress]]. [[Taiwan]] had the first multi-party legislative elections in 1992 and the first presidential election in 1996.
|-
| Colombia
| 1954
| 1936
| [[Women's suffrage in Colombia|1954]]
| 1936
| Universal male suffrage started in 1853, restricted in 1886. Electorate defined on the basis of adult franchise and joint electorate.
|-
| First Czechoslovak Republic
| 1918
| 1896
| 1918
| 1896
| Within Austria, universal suffrage 1896, universal and equal suffrage (removing multiple voting) 1907. After the [[Central Powers]]' defeat in World War I, universal suffrage including women.
|-
| Denmark
| 1915
| 1849
| 1915
| 1849
| The King granted limited voting rights in 1834 but only to property owners and with limited power.  First proper voting rights came in 1849 to "men over 30 of good reputation" but in the subsequent years the rules were changed a number of times, and it was not until the change of the constitution in 1915 that all men and women living within the kingdom had influence on all chambers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://danmarkshistorien.dk/leksikon-og-kilder/vis/materiale/valgret-1834-1915/|title=Valgret 1834–1915|website=danmarkshistorien.dk|date=25 March 2025|access-date=19 September 2019|archive-date=7 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607080335/http://danmarkshistorien.dk/leksikon-og-kilder/vis/materiale/valgret-1834-1915/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Danish law does not operate with any notion of "ethnicity", but non-resident citizens are still excluded from voting after two years abroad.<ref name="danish-expat-vote">{{Cite web|url=https://valg.oim.dk/vaelgere/udlandsdanskeres-valgret/|title=Udlandsdanskeres valgret|website=valg.oim.dk}}</ref>
|-
| Dominican Republic
| 2015
| {{date?}}
| {{date?}}
| {{date?}}
| [[Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna]] proposed the inclusion of the military vote in the constitutional reform of [[Dominican Republic]], to be effective in the elections of 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eldia.com.do/zorrilla-ozuna-propone-incluir-voto-militar-en-modificacion-constitucional/|title=Zorrilla Ozuna propone incluir voto militar en modificación constitucional|date=1 June 2015|website=El Día|language=es|access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref>
|-
| Ecuador
| {{date?}}
| {{date?}}
| [[Women's suffrage in Ecuador|1929]]
| {{date?}}
|
|-
| Estonia
| 1918
| 1917
| 1918
| 1917
| Two tiered elections were held, with 62 representatives from rural communities and towns elected in May–June and July–August, respectively.
|-
| European Union
| 1979
| 1979
| 1979
| 1979
|[[Elections to the European Parliament]] have taken place since 1979.
|-
| Finland
| 1906
| 1906
| 1906
| 1906
| As an [[Autonomous entity|autonomous]] [[Grand Principality]] in the [[Russian Empire]], Finland achieved universal suffrage in 1906, becoming the second country in the world to adopt universal suffrage.<ref>{{cite book |title=Official Report of Debates |page=113 |work=Council of Europe |date=1991}}</ref> The [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|Finnish parliamentary election of 1907]] was the first time when women were elected (19 of 200 MPs). After becoming independent in 1917, [[Finland]] continued its universal suffrage.
|-
| France
| 1945{{refn|group=nb|name=France1945|Over the years suffrage increased and decreased based on the introduction, repeal and reintroduction of various degrees of universal, property and census-based suffrage. Universal male suffrage was given in 1848 and in 1944 women had equal universal suffrage rights to men. The military obtained the right to vote in 1945.}}
| 1848{{refn|group=nb|name=France1945}}
| 1944
| 1792{{refn|group=nb|name=FranceEthnicity|In 1792, the Convention assembly was elected by all French males 21 and over regardless of one's ethnicity. While not an ethnicity, those serving in the military obtained the right to vote in 1945.}}
| In 1792, the Convention assembly was elected by all French males 21 and over.<ref>Thompson, J. M. (1959). The French Revolution. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.</ref><ref>décret relatif à la formation de la convention nationale du 10 août 1792 : « L'assemblée nationale décrète que, pour la formation de la convention nationale prochaine, tout Français âgé de vingt et un ans, domicilié depuis un an, vivant du produit de son travail, sera admis à voter dans les assemblées de commune et dans les assemblées primaires, comme tout autre citoyen actif. »</ref> Over the subsequent years, France experienced profound political upheaval, with republican, monarchist and bonapartist government governing at various times. Through these changes, suffrage increased and decreased based on the introduction, repeal and reintroduction of various degrees of universal, property and census-based suffrage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Przeworski |first=Adam |date=2009 |title=Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/abs/conquered-or-granted-a-history-of-suffrage-extensions/A4E9E4C21CA70A0603744957F941A78A |journal=British Journal of Political Science |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=291–321 |doi=10.1017/S0007123408000434 |issn=1469-2112|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Universal male suffrage was given in 1848, with the exception of the military who obtained the right to vote in 1945. This was supplemented in 1944 by full universal suffrage, including women as voters.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}
|-
| Georgia
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| The first democratic elections were held on 14–16 February 1919. Five women were elected in total (for Menshevik party) to take part in national legislature numbering 130MPs. In 1921, Georgia became a part of the nascent [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=ussr group=nb/>
|-
| Germany
| 1919
| 1871
| 1919
| 1919
| The [[German Empire]] from 1871 until 1918 (and the [[North German Confederation]] before it from 1867) had universal male suffrage, one of the more progressive election franchises at the time.<ref>M. L. Anderson: Praciticing Democracy. Elections and Political Culture in Imperial Germany. Princeton (NJ) 2000;</ref> After the [[German Revolution of 1918–19]], the [[Weimar Constitution]] established universal suffrage in 1919 with a minimum voting age of 20.
|-
| Ghana
| 1951
| 1951
| 1951
| 1951
| Universal suffrage was granted for the [[1951 Gold Coast legislative election|1951 legislative election]]. This was the first election to be held in Africa under universal suffrage.<ref>Brown, J.M. & Roger Louis, W.M. (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=N28kkSqS0xwC&dq=universal-suffrage+gold-coast+1951&pg=RA4-PA730 The Oxford History of the British Empire]</ref>
|-
| Greece
| 1952
| 1844
| 1952
| 1844
| After the [[3 September 1843 Revolution|Revolution of 3 September 1843]], the [[Greek Constitution of 1844]] with the electoral law of 18 March 1844 introduced universal male suffrage with secret ballot.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Greece|title=Greece – Building the nation, 1832–1913|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref> Women were given the right to vote in local elections in 1930 and in parliamentary elections since 1952.
|-
| [[Democratic development in Hong Kong|Hong Kong]]
| 1991
| 1991
| 1991
| 1991
| Held its first [[1991 Hong Kong legislative election|legislative elections in 1991]], electing part of the legislators. However currently, less than a quarter of the seats in its [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Legislative Council]] are elected via universal suffrage, the rest being [[Functional constituency|functional constituencies]] elected by trade groups and seats held by those [[Election Committee (constituency)|elected by the establishment-controlled Election Committee]].
|-
| Hungary
| 1918
| 1918
| 1918
| 1867
| After the [[Central Powers]]' defeat in World War I.
Somewhat reverted in 1925: women's voting age raised to 30, education and wealth requirements were raised. In rural constituencies open voting was reinstated.
The rate of eligible citizens fell to 29%.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hungarian Voting Act of 1925 |url=http://1000ev.hu/index.php?a=3&param=7637 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623162958/http://1000ev.hu/index.php?a=3&param=7637 |archive-date=23 June 2015 |language=hu}}</ref>
|-
| Iceland
| 1920
| 1920
| 1920
| 1920
| A small proportion of men were given the right to vote in the [[1844 Icelandic parliamentary election|1844 Althing elections]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jóhannesson |first=Guðni Th. |date=2010 |title=Country Report: Iceland |url=https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/19617/Iceland.pdf?sequence=1 |journal=EUDO Citizenship Observatory}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Hvenær varð kosningaréttur almennur á Íslandi? |url=http://www.visindavefur.is/svar.php?id=73712 |access-date=2022-04-30 |website=Vísindavefurinn |language=is}}</ref>
A small proportion of women were granted the right to vote in local elections in 1882.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iceland celebrates Women's Rights Day today! |url=https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/06/19/iceland_celebrates_women_s_rights_day_today/ |access-date=2022-04-30 |website=Iceland Monitor}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> Women's suffrage was proposed in the [[Althing]] in 1911, ratified by the Althing in 1913, and enacted on 19 June 1915 by the Danish king; but this only granted the vote to women over 40, and did not grant the right to vote to servants.<ref name="styrk">{{cite web |last1=Styrkársdóttir |first1=Auður |title=Kvennasögusafn Íslands – Women's suffrage in Iceland |url=https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-suffrage |access-date=19 October 2018 |website=kvennasogusafn.is |publisher=Director of the Women's History Archives, Iceland from 2001–2016 |language=is |archive-date=19 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019164039/https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-suffrage |url-status=dead }}</ref> These restrictions (along with some restrictions on male suffrage) were lifted in 1920 after Iceland became an independent state under the Danish crown in 1918.<ref name=":5" /><ref name="styrk" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Benjamin |first1=Gabríel |date=6 March 2015 |title=Icelanders Celebrate The 100 Year Anniversary Of Women's Suffrage |url=https://grapevine.is/culture/2015/03/06/icelanders-celebrate-the-100-year-anniversary-of-womens-suffrage/ |access-date=19 October 2018 |website=The Reykjavik Grapevine}}</ref>
|-
| India
| 1950
| 1950
| [[Women's suffrage in India|1950]]
| 1950
| All adult citizens as recognized by the [[Constitution of India]], irrespective of race or gender or religion on the founding of the Republic of India.
|-
| Indonesia
| 1955
| 1955
| 1955
| 1955
|
|-
| Iran
| 1963
| 1906
| 1963
| 1906
| Under "[[Iranian Constitutional Revolution|Constitutional Revolution]]". The [[White Revolution]] gave [[Women's rights movement in Iran|women the right to vote]] in 1963.<ref>{{cite web|title=Iran|url=https://www.ndi.org/iran|publisher=The National Democratic Institute|access-date=17 January 2016}}</ref>
|-
| Ireland
| 1923
| 1918
| 1923
| 1793
| The [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793]]{{refn|group=nb|name=RCRA1829}} removed the [[Catholic emancipation|voting ban]] from Catholic men in the [[Kingdom of Ireland]]. All adult men in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] were enfranchised by the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=The History of the Parliamentary Franchise|url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/RP13-14|publisher=House of Commons Library|access-date=16 March 2016|date=1 March 2013}}</ref> This Act granted women over 30 the right to vote in national elections,{{refn|group=nb|name=RA1832}} but about 60% of women (those under 30 or not meeting property qualifications) were excluded until the [[Electoral Act 1923]] in the [[Irish Free State]] changed previous British law to enfranchise women equally with men in 1923.<ref>{{cite Irish legislation|year=1923|type=act|number=12|section=1|stitle=Dáil Franchise|name=[[Electoral Act 1923]]}}</ref>
|-
| Israel
| 1948
| 1948
| 1948
| 1948
| Universal suffrage since the founding of the State of Israel.
|-
| Italy
| 1945
| 1912
| 1945
| 1912
| 1912, introduction of the first universal male suffrage, extended to all citizens aged 30 and older, with no restrictions. It was applied in the elections of 1913.<ref>"The progressive enlargement of suffrage through to 1913 when universal suffrage among males was granted (...) was a true constitutional change, for it transformed an oligarchical constitution into a democratic one": Bernardo Giorgio Mattarella, ''ADMINISTRATIVE LAW IN ITALY: AN HISTORICAL SKETCH (1)'', Riv. trim. dir. pubbl., fasc.4, 2010, pag. 1009.</ref> In 1918 the electorate was expanded with all male citizens aged 21 and older or who had served in the army. Universal adult suffrage, including women, introduced in 1945, and applied for the first time in the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|referendum of 1946]]. Suffrage for men and women aged 18 granted in 1975.
|-
| Jamaica
| 1944
| 1944
| 1944
| 1944
| Universal adult suffrage introduced.
|-
| Japan
| 1945
| 1925
| [[Women's suffrage in Japan|1945]]
| 1925
| Universal adult male suffrage for those over 25 was introduced in 1925. Universal adult suffrage for both sexes over 20 introduced in 1945. The Voting age was reduced to 18 in 2016.
|-
| Kuwait
| 2005
| 1962
| [[Women's suffrage in Kuwait|2005]]
| 1962
| Universal adult male suffrage since 1962, for citizens who are 21 or older, with the exception of those who, at the time of elections, serve in the armed forces. As of 2005, women who satisfy the age and citizenship requirements are allowed to vote.
|-
| Latvia
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919
| Universal suffrage introduced in Law of elections to the Constituent assembly.
|-
| Lebanon
| 1943
| 1943
| 1943
| 1943
| Universal suffrage for all adult males and females since the independence of Lebanon (The Chamber of Deputies is shared equally between Christians and Muslims, rather than elected by universal suffrage that would have provided a Muslim majority).
|-
| Liberia
| 1951
| 1946
| 1946
| –
| Liberia denies political rights for non-Black people. See: [[Liberian nationality law]]
|-
| Liechtenstein
| 1984
| 1921
| [[Women's suffrage in Liechtenstein|1984]]
| {{date?}}
|
|-
| Lithuania
| 1918<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Lietuvos Valstybės Laikinosios Konstitucijos pamatiniai dėsniai |url=https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/0b9707404f8511e5a4ad9dd3e7d17706?positionInSearchResults=1129&searchModelUUID=dd08725a-2a58-4f73-9c7f-f13bb1e8e5af/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=e-seimas.lrs.lt}}</ref>
| 1918
| 1918
| 1918
|2 November 1918, the Council of State of Lithuania approved the Fundamental Laws of the Provisional Constitution of the State of Lithuania. In this Provisional Constitution it said: "All citizens of the State, whatever their sex, nationality, religion or class, are equal before the law.", this implicitly establishes universal suffrage.<ref name=":6" /> Directly universal suffrage was enshrined in the Electoral Law of 30 October 1919.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rinkimų teisė moterims ir moterys 1920–1940 m. Lietuvos Respublikos Seime |url=https://www.lrs.lt/sip/portal.show?p_r=38142&p_k=1 |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=www.lrs.lt |language=lt}}</ref>
|-
| Luxembourg
| 1919
| 1919
| 1919<ref>{{cite web |title=Right to vote – Luxembourg |date=26 April 2023 |url=https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/society-and-culture/political-system/electoral-system.html |access-date=26 April 2023}}</ref>
| 1919
| Universal voting rights introduced in May 1919, first applied in a referendum on 28 September, then the parliamentarian elections on 26 October 1919.
|-
| Malaysia
| 1957
| 1956
| 1957
| 1956
|
|-
| Malta
| 1947
| 1947
| 1947
| 1947
| The [[1947 Maltese general election|1947 election]] was the first election without property qualifications for voters, and women were also allowed to vote for the first time.
|-
| Mauritius
| 1959
| 1948
| 1959
| 1948
| The [[1959 Mauritian general election|1959 election]] was the first election when women were also allowed to vote for the first time. The [[1948 Mauritian general election]] was the first instance when any adult who could write their names in any of the island's languages was allowed to vote, without property qualifications for voters.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mauritius: History |url=https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/mauritius/history |publisher=The Commonwealth |access-date=28 July 2020 |archive-date=19 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619080933/https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/mauritius/history |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
| Mexico
| 1953
| 1917
| [[Women's suffrage in Mexico|1953]]
| 1917
| Universal suffrage given to men in 1917 after the Mexican Revolution; suffrage given to women in municipal elections in 1947 and national elections in 1953.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thinkfinity.org/2010-10-17_mexican-women-right-to-vote-run-for-office |title=Mexican women were granted the right to run for office and to vote in national elections in 1953. |work= Thinkfinity |access-date=1 April 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100809083217/http://www.thinkfinity.org/2010-10-17_mexican-women-right-to-vote-run-for-office |archive-date=9 August 2010 }}</ref> In 1996, Mexicans living in the United States were given the right to vote in Mexican elections.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=989_0_2_0|title=Mexico: Voting Rights and Emigration – Migration News &#124; Migration Dialogue|website=migration.ucdavis.edu}}</ref>
|-
| Netherlands
| 1919
| 1917
| 1919
| 1917
| From 1917 full suffrage for men aged 23 and above. From 1919 universal suffrage for men and women aged 23. From 1971 suffrage for men and women aged 18 and older.
|-
| New Zealand
| 1893
| 1879
| [[Women's suffrage in New Zealand|1893]]
| 1879
| With the extension of voting rights to women in 1893, the self-governing British colony became one of the first permanently constituted jurisdictions in the world to grant universal adult suffrage,<ref name="Nohlen"/> suffrage previously having been universal for [[Māori people|Māori]] men over 21 from 1867, and for white men from 1879.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elections.org.nz/study/history/maori-vote.html |title=History of the Vote: Māori and the Vote |access-date=9 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429093638/http://www.elections.org.nz/study/history/maori-vote.html |archive-date=29 April 2007 }}</ref> Plural voting (impacting men) was abolished in 1889. Some adult [[Voting rights of prisoners in New Zealand|prison inmates are denied the right to vote]].
|-
| Norway
| 1913
| 1898
| 1913
| 1851
| Full male suffrage in 1898, with women included in 1913. Tax-paying Sami men were granted suffrage in a revision of the constitution in 1821.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stortinget.no/no/Stortinget-og-demokratiet/Historikk/Historisk-dokumentasjon/da-samer-fikk-stemmerett/|title=Da samer fikk stemmerett|date=15 May 2018|website=Stortinget|language=no|access-date=23 August 2019}}</ref> The so-called [[Jew clause]] in the Constitution of 1814 explicitly banned Jews from entering and residing in the kingdom. It was repealed in 1851, paving the way for Jews to live, pay taxes and vote in Norway.
|-
| Pakistan
| 1956
| 1951
| 1956
| 1951
|In 1956, women were granted the right to vote in national elections. Pakistan adopted universal adult suffrage for provisional assembly elections soon after it became independent in 1947. The first direct elections held in the country after independence were for the provincial Assembly of the Punjab from 10 to 20 March 1951.
|-
| Paraguay
| {{date?}}
| {{date?}}
| [[Women's suffrage in Paraguay|1961]]
| {{date?}}
|
|-
| Peru
| 1979
| 1979
| 1979
| 1979
|Suffrage was granted for women in 1955 but suffrage for the illiterate was only granted with the 1979 Constitution.
|-
| Philippines
| 1946
| 1935
| 1937
| 1946
| Males who were over 25 years old and could speak English or Spanish, with property and tax restrictions, were previously allowed to vote as early as 1907; universal male suffrage became a constitutional right in 1935. Women's suffrage was approved in a [[1937 Philippine women suffrage plebiscite|plebiscite in 1937]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091112-235872/Suffrage |title=Suffrage |first=Michael |last=Tan |newspaper=[[Philippine Daily Inquirer]] |date=12 November 2009 |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref>
|-
| Poland
| 1918
| 1918
| 1918
| 1918
| Prior to the [[Partition of Poland]] in 1795, only nobility (men) were allowed to take part in political life. The first parliamentary elections were held on 26 January 1919 ([[1919 Polish legislative election]]), according to the decree introducing universal suffrage, signed by [[Józef Piłsudski]] on 28 November 1918, immediately after restoring independent Polish state. Universal suffrage for men and women over 21.
|-
| Portugal
| 1974
| 1974
| 1974
| 1974
| By 1878, 72% of the male adult population had access to vote; this number was restricted by the policies of the last years of the monarchy and first years of the republic (transition in 1910 with the [[5 October 1910 revolution]]), being reinstalled only in the 1920s. Restricted female suffrage was firstly allowed in 1931; it was further extended in 1933, 1946, and finally 1968. Due to the 1933–74 dictatorship of [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]], universal suffrage was only fully attained after the 1974 [[Carnation revolution]].
|-
| Qatar
| 1999
| 1999
| 1999
| {{date?}}
| Municipal elections are open for active and passive participation for men and women since 1999.
|-
| Romania
| 1948
| 1918
| 1948
| 1918
| The universal suffrage for men established by Royal Decree in November 1918, the [[1919 Romanian general election|first elections using universal suffrage]] took place in November 1919. Literate women were given the right to vote in the local elections in 1929 and the electoral law of 1939 extended the active voting rights to all literate citizens which were 30 years old or older. The universal suffrage was granted by the [[1948 Constitution of Romania]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radiooltenia.ro/istoria-votului-in-romania/|title=''Istoria votului în România'' [Voting history in Romania]|publisher=Radio Oltenia|author=Octavian Dobrișan|language=ro|date=11 December 2016|access-date=29 January 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scena9.ro/article/votul-femeilor-in-romania-cronica-unei-lupte|title=''80 de ani de când femeile pot vota în România'' [80 years since women can vote in Romania]|author=Ionuț Dulămiță, Ionuț Sociu|publisher=Scena 9|language=ro|date=26 March 2018|access-date=29 January 2019}}</ref>
|-
| Russia
| 1917
| 1917
| 1917
| 1917
| Universal suffrage established by Declaration of the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] of 15 March 1917 and Statute on Elections of the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] of 2 August 1917.<ref>Национальные парламенты мира : энцикл. справ. / А. Х. Саидов; Рос. акад. наук, Ин-т государства и права, [https://books.google.com/books?id=c5333zCKH_4C&pg=PA148 p. 148.]</ref>
|-
| Samoa
| 1991
| 1990
| 1991
| 1990
|
|-
| Saudi Arabia
| 2015
| 2005
| 2015
| 2005
| Saudi Arabia is an [[authoritarian]] state.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fahim |first1=Kareem |date=27 November 2020 |title=Crackdowns by U.S. allies could test Biden's pledge to promote human rights |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/saudi-egypt-turkey-loujain-demirtas/2020/11/26/f0fb45d0-2fc2-11eb-9dd6-2d0179981719_story.html |access-date=19 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kenneth |first1=Pollack M. |date=16 October 2020 |title=The Mysteries of the American-Saudi Alliance |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/books/review/vision-or-mirage-david-rundell-blood-and-oil-bradley-hope-justin-scheck.html |access-date=19 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fields |first1=Jeffrey |date=3 March 2021 |title=Why repressive Saudi Arabia remains a U.S. ally |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3416/why-repressive-saudi-arabia-remains-a-us-ally/|access-date=19 March 2022 |website=[[USC Dornsife]]}}</ref> Men and women have the right to vote for half the seats in "virtually powerless" municipal councils.<ref name="lacey-267">{{cite book |last=Lacey |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0 |title=Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia |date=2009 |publisher=Viking |isbn=9780670021185 |page=[https://archive.org/details/insidekingdomkin00lace_0/page/267 267] |quote=Abdullah was already the first Saudi ruler to have presided over elections. Admittedly the voting, held in the spring of 2005, was only for local, virtually powerless municipal councils -- and then for only half the seats on those; women were not allowed to stand for office or to vote. But the male electorate got the change to eat large quantities of mutton for three weeks since Saudi electioneering proved to revolve around lamb and tents ... the candidate held court, inviting voters inside [their tents] and plying them with mountains of rice and whole roasted sheep. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="PTANG">{{cite web |author=Photograph Tasneem Alsultan, National Geographic |title=In a Historic Election, Saudi Women Cast First-Ever Ballots |date=12 December 2015 |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151212-saudi-arabia-election-women-vote/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151217135730/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151212-saudi-arabia-election-women-vote/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 December 2015 |publisher=}}</ref>
|-
| Serbia
| 1945
| 1888
| 1945
| 1888
| Suffrage for male voters who paid taxes was granted in the Constitution of 1869, and in the [[Constitution of Serbia|Constitution]] of 1888 the right to vote was given to all males of age 21. Women were allowed to vote with the [[Communist]] constitution of [[Yugoslavia]].
|-
| South Africa
| 1994
| 1910
| 1931
| 1994
| White women's suffrage granted in 1930 and suffrage for all white adults regardless of property in 1931. Universal suffrage not regarding race or colour of skin; many blacks and [[Coloured]]s were denied the right to vote before and during the [[apartheid]] era (1948–1994).
|-
| South Korea
| 1948
| 1948
| 1948
| 1948
| Universal suffrage since the founding of the Republic of Korea. However, voting was initially limited to landowners and taxpayers in the larger towns, elders voting for everyone at the village level.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cumings|first1=Bruce|title=The Korean War: A History|date=2010|page=111}}</ref>
|-
| Spain
| 1933
| 1812
| 1933
| 1869
| The [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|Constitution of 1812]] enfranchised all Spanish men of Iberian or indigenous American descent in both hemispheres irrespective of property, but explicitly excluded Afrodescendent men.;<ref>{{Cite journal |last=King |first=James F. |date=1953 |title=The Colored Castes and American Representation in the Cortes of Cadiz |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=33–64 |doi=10.2307/2509621 |jstor=2509621 |issn=0018-2168}}</ref> nevertheless, the Constitution was repealed with the restoration of [[Ferdinand VII]] in 1814.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.congreso.es/es/cem/const1812|title=Constituciones Españolas 1812 - 1978}}</ref>
Recovered and extended to all men from 1869 to 1878 (comprising the [[Provisional Government (1868–1871)|Provisional Government]], the [[Amadeo I of Spain|Reign of Amadeo of Savoy]], the [[First Spanish Republic]] and the three first years of [[Restoration (Spain)|Bourbon Restoration]]) and from 1890 to the end of the [[Second Spanish Republic]] (1931–36).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/1704411.pdf|title=El sufragio universal en Espana (1890–1936)|access-date=5 December 2019}}</ref> On 19 November 1933 women were granted the right to vote. Revoked during Franco era (1939–75) and [[Women's suffrage in Francoist Spain and the democratic transition|recovered since 1977]] in the new Spanish Constitution.
|-
| Sri Lanka
| 1931
| 1931
| [[Women's suffrage in Sri Lanka|1931]]
| 1931
| Universal suffrage for all irrespective of race, ethnicity, language, or gender. Sri Lanka is the oldest democracy in Asia.
|-
| Sweden
| 1945
| 1909
| [[Women's suffrage in Sweden|1919]]
| 1873
| During the years 1718–72 burgher men and women of age and with income were able to elect members of parliament, but women's suffrage was abolished in 1772. Jews were given the right to vote in 1838, but not given the right to stand for election until 1870. Catholics were given the right to vote in 1873, but not given the right to be eligible as cabinet minister until 1951. Full{{disputed inline|Sweden|date=July 2013}} male suffrage 1909 for those aged 25 and above, but only to one of two equally weighed houses of parliament. Universal suffrage for men and women aged 23 enacted in 1919,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.riksdagen.se/templates/R_Page____11568.aspx|title=Sveriges Riksdag: Kampen för rösträtt}}</ref> and the first election took place in 1921. Until 1924 men who refused to do military service were excepted from universal suffrage. Until 1937 courts were able to punish crimes by revoking a convict's right to vote. Until 1945 persons living on benefits were excepted from universal suffrage. Voting age changed to 21 in 1945, to 20 in 1965, to 19 in 1969 and to 18 in 1975.
|-
| Switzerland
| 1990
| 1848
| [[Women's suffrage in Switzerland|1990]]
| 1866
| In the short-lived [[Helvetic Republic]] (1798–1803) men above the age of 20 had the right to vote. At the formation of today's [[Switzerland as a federal state|federal state]] in 1848, Switzerland reintroduced universal male suffrage, but Jews did not have the same political rights as Christian citizens until 1866.

[[Women's suffrage in Switzerland|Women's suffrage]] was introduced at the national level after [[1971 Swiss referendums|a nationwide (male) referendum]] in 1971, but the referendum did not give women the right to vote at the cantonal level.

Among the constituent states of the [[Old Swiss Confederacy]], universal male suffrage is first attested in [[Canton of Uri|Uri]] in 1231, in [[Canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]] in 1294, in [[Unterwalden]] in 1309, and in [[Appenzell]] in 1403. In these rural communities all men fit for military service were allowed to participate in the [[Landsgemeinde]], which managed political and judicial affairs.

Women gained the right to vote in cantonal elections and referendums in the following years:
* 1959: Vaud, Neuchâtel
* 1960: Genève
* 1966: Basel-Stadt
* 1968: Basel-Land
* 1969: Ticino
* 1970: Valais, Luzern, Zürich.
* 1971: Aargau, Fribourg, Schaffhausen, Zug, Glarus, Solothurn, Bern, Thurgau.
* 1972: St. Gallen, Uri, Schwyz, Graubünden, Nidwalden, Obwalden.

Appenzell Ausserrhoden only allowed women to vote in 1989, and the women of [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] had to wait until 1990, when a ruling of the Federal Court forced the canton to let women participate in the Landsgemeinde.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Von Wyl |first1=Benjamin |title=Appenzell Inner Rhodes: the last Swiss canton to give women the vote |url=https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/a-visit-to-appenzell-inner-rhodes--the-last-canton-to-grant-women-the-right-to-vote-in-switzerland-/46328984 |website=Swissinfo.ch |date=2 February 2021}}</ref><ref name=Appenzell />
|-
| Thailand
| 1933
| 1933
| 1933
| 1933
| Thailand gave all villagers, men and women, the right to vote in local village elections in the "Local Administrative Act of May 1897" but not nationally.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bowie |first1=Katherine |title=Women's Suffrage in Thailand: A Southeast Asian Historiographical Challenge |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |date=n.d. |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=708–741 |doi=10.1017/S0010417510000435 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Universal suffrage for national elections was granted during the first general election in 1933.
|-
| Tunisia
| 1959
| {{date?}}
| 1957
| {{date?}}
| Universal suffrage for all since the first post-independence [[Constitution of Tunisia#Constitution of 1959|constitution.]]
|-
| Turkey
| 1934
| 1876
| 1934
| 1876
|
|-
| United Arab Emirates
| –
| 2006
| 2006
| 2006
| Limited suffrage for both men and women. A hand-picked 12% of [[Emirati nationality law|Emirati citizens]] have the right to vote for half the members of the [[Federal National Council]], an advisory quasi-parliamentary body.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last=Coles |first=Isabel |date=2011-08-21 |title=UAE elections: what substance behind the gloss? |work=Reuters |url=https://jp.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-elections-idUSTRE77K0Z220110821 |access-date=2021-05-26}}</ref> The UAE is an authoritarian state.<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal |last=Herb |first=Michael |date=2009 |title=A Nation of Bureaucrats: Political Participation and Economic Diversification in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/nation-of-bureaucrats-political-participation-and-economic-diversification-in-kuwait-and-the-united-arab-emirates/E3527822940D0E8A2BCD98A320002C3E |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=375–395 |doi=10.1017/S0020743809091119 |issn=1471-6380 |s2cid=154366494|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ledstrup |first=Martin |date=2019 |title=Nationalism and Nationhood in the United Arab Emirates |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-91653-8 |publisher=Palgrave |language=en-gb |pages=10 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-91653-8 |isbn=978-3-319-91652-1 |s2cid=158959849}}</ref>
|-
| [[Elections in the United Kingdom#History|United Kingdom]]
| 1928
| 1918
| [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|1928]]
| 1791
| The [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791]] removed the dependence of voting rights [[Catholic emancipation|on religion]]{{refn|group=nb|name=RCRA1829|the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829]] reflects eligibility for office, not the eligibility to vote.}} in the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]. The right to vote has never since been based on race or religion.{{refn|group=nb|While [[History of Northern Ireland#1925 to 1965|local government gerrymandering in Northern Ireland]] was one of the factors which led to [[the Troubles]],<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of the Ulster Unionist Party: Protest, Pragmatism and Pessimism (Manchester Studies in Modern History) |first=Graham |last=Walker |date=4 September 2004 |isbn=978-0-7190-6109-7 |page=162|publisher=Manchester University Press }}</ref> parliamentary elections still took place for all British citizens. In 1972 the British Parliament was unwilling to grant the mostly Protestant unionist Northern Ireland government more authoritarian special powers since it was now convinced of its inability to restore order. So they [[Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972|suspended the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the post of Governor]] and made provision for [[Direct rule (Northern Ireland)|direct rule]] by the elected government of the United Kingdom.}}

All adult men in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] were enfranchised by the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]].<ref name="auto"/> This Act granted women over 30 the right to vote in national elections,{{refn|group=nb|name=RA1832|Until the [[Reform Act 1832]] specified "male persons", a few women had been able to vote in parliamentary elections through property ownership, although this was rare.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heater|first1=Derek|title=Citizenship in Britain: A History|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748626724|page=107|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|chapter=Emergence of Radicalism}}</ref> In local government elections, women lost the right to vote under the [[Municipal Corporations Act 1835]]. Unmarried women [[ratepayer]]s received the right to vote in the Municipal Franchise Act 1869. This right was confirmed in the [[Local Government Act 1894]] and extended to include some married women.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heater|first1=Derek|title=Citizenship in Britain: A History|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748626724|page=136|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA136|chapter=Emergence of Radicalism}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Women's rights|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/women.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Which Act Gave Women the Right to Vote in Britain?|url=http://classroom.synonym.com/act-gave-women-right-vote-britain-5469.html|website=Synonym|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> By 1900, over 1 million women were registered for local government elections in England.<ref name=HoCL2013>{{citation|title=The History of the Parliamentary Franchise|chapter-url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/RP13-14|publisher=House of Commons Library|access-date=16 March 2016|date=1 March 2013|pages=37–39|chapter=Female Suffrage before 1918}}</ref>}} but about 60% of women (those under 30 or not meeting property qualifications) were excluded until the [[Equal Franchise Act 1928]], when women were granted the vote on the same terms as men in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.<ref>Peter N. Stearns (2008). "The Oxford encyclopedia of the modern world, Volume 7". p. 160. Oxford University Press, 2008</ref>

The [[Representation of the People Act 1948]] removed [[plural voting]] rights held by about 7% of the electorate.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/general-election-2017-magna-carta-universal-suffrage-1000-year/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/general-election-2017-magna-carta-universal-suffrage-1000-year/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=From Magna Carta to universal suffrage, the 1000-year history of British democracy|date=18 April 2017|work=The Telegraph|access-date=19 January 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Graduates of universities lost the right to vote in [[university constituency|university constituencies]] as well as [[parliamentary borough]]s and property owners lost the right to vote both in the constituency where their property lay and that in which they lived, if the two were different. For elections to the [[Parliament of Northern Ireland]], these changes were made under the Electoral Law Act 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apni/1968/20/introduction|title=Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1968|website=www.legislation.gov.uk|access-date=19 January 2018}}</ref>}}

The [[Representation of the People Act 1969]] reduced the voting age from 21 to 18, the first major democratic country to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bingham |first=Adrian |date=25 June 2019 |title='The last milestone' on the journey to full adult suffrage? 50 years of debates about the voting age |url=https://www.historyandpolicy.org/index.php/policy-papers/papers/the-last-milestone-on-the-journey-to-full-adult-suffrage |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=History & Policy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Loughran |first1=Thomas |last2=Mycock |first2=Andrew |last3=Tonge |first3=Jonathan |date=2021-11-03 |title=Lowering the voting age: three lessons from the 1969 Representation of the People's Act |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/lessons-from-the-1969-representation-of-the-peoples-act/ |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=British Politics and Policy at LSE}}</ref>

As of 2019, 529,902 [[British national]]s <small>([[Crown Dependencies#Definition|257,646 people]] in [[Crown Dependencies]] and [[British Overseas Territories#Population|272,256 people]] in [[British Overseas Territories]])</small> are represented in local legislatures in their territories but not in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], unless they are resident in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite report|last=House of Commons Library|date=6 March 2021|title=Who can vote in UK elections?|url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8985/|language=en-GB}}</ref>{{refn|group=nb|Most of the [[British Overseas Territories]] and all of the [[Crown Dependencies]] have a local representative government, although ultimate authority still resides in Westminster. Legislation has been proposed in past to create parliamentary districts for the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies, though as of 2020 no bill has been put forward by the British government<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.caymancompass.com/2020/11/18/proposed-uk-overseas-territories-mp-bill-a-no-go/|title=Proposed UK Overseas Territories MP bill a no-go|first=Reshma|last=Ragoonath|date=18 November 2020|website=Cayman Compass}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://bernews.com/2012/01/call-for-island-to-be-represented-in-uk |title=Island Should Be Represented In UK |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=13 January 2012 |website=BERNEWS |access-date=2 June 2021 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://bvinews.com/having-reps-in-british-parliament-could-help-the-bvi/ |title=Having reps in British parliament could help the BVI |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=25 November 2020 |website=BVI News |publisher=BVI News, Media Expressions Limited |access-date=2 June 2021 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmbills/140/00140--a.htm |title=Representation of Overseas Territories Bill. |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=15 June 2000 |website=Parliament of the United Kingdom (Session 1999–2000 of the House of Commons) |publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |access-date=2 June 2021 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-06-19/debates/A0942369-590A-4AD5-BA57-81E07913B8DD/RepresentationOfThePeople(Gibraltar)?highlight=representation%20overseas%20territories%20bill#contribution-D85F8774-137E-4869-B18F-DA6C6DAD3F45 |title=Representation of the People (Gibraltar), Volume 643: debated on Tuesday 19 June 2018 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=HANSARD (House of Commons Chamber) |publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |quote=}}</ref> [[British nationality law]] has changed over the years has redefined who has the birthright to live and work in the UK. In [[Commonwealth Immigration Act 1968|1968]] and [[Immigration Act 1971|1971]], as a result of fears about increasing immigration by non-white British citizens, the UK Government introduced immigration restrictions and stripped birthrights on British subjects from some British Overseas Territories. The current principal British nationality law in force, since 1 January 1983, is the [[British Nationality Act 1981]], which established the system of multiple categories of British nationality.}}
|-
| [[Voting rights in the United States|United States]]
| 1965{{refn|group=nb|name=VRA1965|While constitutionally given the right to vote by the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] in 1870 and [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] in 1920, the reality of the country was such that most African Americans and some poor whites could not vote until the passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].

Starting in 1888 [[disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|Southern states legalized disenfranchisement]] by enacting [[Jim Crow laws]]; they amended their constitutions and passed legislation to impose various voting restrictions, including literacy tests, poll taxes, property-ownership requirements, moral character tests, requirements that applicants interpret a particular document, and grandfather clauses that allowed otherwise-ineligible persons to vote if their grandfathers voted (which excluded many African Americans whose grandfathers had been ineligible). During this period, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] generally upheld state efforts to discriminate against racial minorities. In Giles v. Harris (1903), the Court held that irrespective of the Fifteenth Amendment, the judiciary did not have the remedial power to force states to register racial minorities to vote. The [[Indian Citizenship Act]] in 1924 gave Native Americans the right to vote and officially recognized them as citizens, nearly two-thirds of whom already had citizenship and the right to vote. In 1943 Chinese immigrants were given the right to citizenship and the right to vote by the [[Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act|Magnuson Act]]. African Americans and others gained full enfranchisement through passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].}}
| 1856{{refn|group=nb|The [[1828 United States presidential election|1828 presidential election]] was the first in which non-property-holding white males could vote in the vast majority of states, but this was not consistent across the country until the last state, North Carolina, abolished property qualification in 1856 resulting in a close approximation to universal white male suffrage (however tax-paying requirements remained in five states in 1860 and survived in two states until the 20th century). The [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] in 1868 altered the way each state is represented in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]. It counted all residents for apportionment including slaves, overriding the [[three-fifths compromise]], and reduced a state's apportionment if it wrongfully denied males over the age of 21 the right to vote; however, this was not enforced in practice. Some poor white men remained excluded at least until 1965.<ref name=Scher2015>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=POzqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR9|title=The Politics of Disenfranchisement: Why is it So Hard to Vote in America?|last=Scher|first=Richard K.|date=2015|page=viii–ix|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317455363}}</ref><ref name=NHLTS2009>{{Cite web |date=2009|title=Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights: A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study |url=https://www.nps.gov/nhl/learn/themes/CivilRights_VotingRights.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702010008/https://www.nps.gov/nhl/learn/themes/CivilRights_VotingRights.pdf |archive-date=2015-07-02 |website=National Park Service}}</ref> For state elections, it was not until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in ''[[Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections]]'' (1966) that all state poll taxes were unconstitutional as violating the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the Fourteenth Amendment. This removed a burden on the poor.}}
| [[Women's suffrage in the United States|1920]]{{refn|group=nb|[[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] in 1920 prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex, but most African-American women some poor white women remained excluded at least until 1965.<ref name=Scher2015/><ref name=NHLTS2009/> For state elections, it was not until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in ''[[Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections]]'' (1966) that all state poll taxes were unconstitutional as violating the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the Fourteenth Amendment. This removed a burden on the poor.}}
| [[Black suffrage in the United States|1965]]{{refn|group=nb|name=VRA1965}}
|
* In the colonial era, there had been various restrictions on suffrage in what is today the United States. Property restrictions on voting disenfranchised more than half of the [[White American|white]] male population in most states.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Voting in Early America|journal=Colonial Williamsburg|volume=Spring 2007|url=http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/spring07/elections.cfm|access-date=21 April 2015}}</ref>
* After the American Revolution, the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]] did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., most states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote (about 6% of the population).<ref>{{cite web|title=Expansion of Rights and Liberties – The Right of Suffrage|url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_13.html|website=Online Exhibit: The Charters of Freedom|publisher=National Archives|access-date=21 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706144856/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_13.html|archive-date=6 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Kenneth|last1=Janda|first2=Jeffrey M.|last2=Berry|first3=Jerry|last3=Goldman|title=The challenge of democracy: government in America|date=2008|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|isbn=9780618990948|page=207|edition=9. ed., update|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VQ_iZMofnl0C&pg=PA207|postscript=none}}; {{cite book|last1=Murrin|first1=John M.|last2=Johnson|first2=Paul E.|last3=McPherson|first3=James M.|last4=Fahs|first4=Alice|last5=Gerstle|first5=Gary|title=Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People|date=2012|publisher=Wadsworth, Cengage Learning|isbn=9780495904991|page=296|edition=6th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGSQOiy6uZUC&pg=PT337}}</ref> Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky were the three states to have full adult suffrage for white males before 1800. New Jersey allowed women's suffrage for landowners until the early 1800s.
* In the [[1820 United States presidential election|1820 election]], there were 108,359 ballots cast. In the [[1840 United States presidential election|1840 election]], 2,412,694 ballots were cast, an increase that far outstripped natural population growth. Poor voters became a huge part of the electorate. By 1856, after the period of [[Jacksonian democracy]], all states had almost universal white adult male suffrage regardless of property ownership. Tax-paying requirements remained in five states, and two into the 20th century.<ref name="NBER2005">{{cite web |author1=Stanley L. Engerman |author2=Kenneth L. Sokoloff |title=The Evolution of Suffrage Institutions in the New World |website=Yale University |date=February 2005|url=http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Workshops-Seminars/Economic-History/sokoloff-050406.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310102314/http://economics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Workshops-Seminars/Economic-History/sokoloff-050406.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-10 |pages=16, 35|quote=By 1840, only three states retained a property qualification, North Carolina (for some state-wide offices only), Rhode Island, and Virginia. In 1856 North Carolina was the last state to end the practice. Tax-paying qualifications were also gone in all but a few states by the Civil War, but they survived into the 20th century in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=U.S. Voting Rights|url=http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html|publisher=Infoplease|access-date=21 April 2015}}</ref>
* In 1868, the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|14th Amendment]] altered the way each state is represented in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]. It counted all residents for apportionment including former slaves, overriding the [[three-fifths compromise]], and reduced a state's apportionment if it wrongfully denied men aged 21 and above the right to vote. However, this was not enforced in practice. In 1870, the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] granted suffrage to all males of any race, skin color, and ethnicity, including former slaves (freedmen), meaning that male African Americans in theory had the right to vote throughout the United States.<ref>David Quigley, Acts of Enforcement: The New York City Election of 1870, in: New York History (2002).</ref>
* Starting in 1888, former Confederate states passed [[Jim Crow laws]] and amendments to effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchise]] black and poor white voters through [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]]es, [[literacy tests]], [[grandfather clauses]] and other restrictions, applied in a discriminatory manner. During this period, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] generally upheld state efforts to discriminate against racial minorities; only later in the 20th century were these laws ruled unconstitutional. Black males in the Northern states could vote, but the majority of African Americans lived in the South.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book|last1=Schultz|first1=Jeffrey D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfmPmrL0N3kC&pg=PA528|title=Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics: Hispanic Americans and Native Americans|last2=Aoki|first2=Andrew L.|last3=Haynie|first3=Kerry L.|last4=McCulloch|first4=Anne M.|date=2000|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-57356-149-5|location=|pages=528|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Scher|first=Richard K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=POzqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA13|title=The Politics of Disenfranchisement: Why is it So Hard to Vote in America?|date=4 March 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45536-3|location=|pages=13|language=en}}</ref>
* Wyoming was the first territory to enfranchise all women in 1869. From then until 1916, all Western states legalized women suffrage, but few Eastern states followed suit. However, in 1920 the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] extended the franchise to women in all states.<ref>Ashlyn K. Kuersten (2003). ''Women and the Law: Leaders, Cases, and Documents''. p. 13. ABC-CLIO, 2003</ref>
* In 1924 the [[Indian Citizenship Act]] gave suffrage to all Native Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom already had citizenship and the right to vote.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Madsen|editor1-first=Deborah L.|title=The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317693192|page=168|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-AapCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA168}}</ref>
* In 1943 Chinese immigrants were given the right to citizenship and the right to vote by the [[Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act|Magnuson Act]]. It allowed some Chinese immigration for the first time since the [[Chinese Exclusion Act (United States)|Chinese Exclusion Act]] of 1882, and permitted some Chinese immigrants already residing in the country to become [[naturalization|naturalized citizens]].
* In 1962–1964, the nationwide "[[one man, one vote]]" electoral system was lawfully established mainly through the [[Warren Court]]'s rulings in ''[[Baker v. Carr]] (1962), [[Reynolds v. Sims]] (1964),'' as well as ''[[Wesberry v. Sanders]] (1964).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theconstitutionproject.com/portfolio/one-person-one-vote/|title=One Person, One Vote {{!}} The Constitution Project|website=www.theconstitutionproject.com|access-date=24 September 2019}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/one-person-one-vote-a-history/399476/|title=The Case That Could Bring Down 'One Person, One Vote'|last=Smith|first=J. Douglas|date=26 July 2015|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=24 September 2019}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/21/nyregion/one-man-one-vote-decades-of-court-decisions.html|title=One Man, One Vote: Decades of Court Decisions|last=Goldman|first=Ari L.|date=21 November 1986|work=The New York Times|access-date=24 September 2019|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>''
* In 1964–1965, the [[Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|24th Amendment]], which abolished the use of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in federal elections, was passed.<ref>[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=100&page=transcript Transcript of Voting Rights Act (1965)] U.S. National Archives.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090214180002/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897070,00.html The Constitution: The 24th Amendment] Time.</ref> Full enfranchisement was revived in 1965, with the passage of [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], which provided for federal enforcement of rights.<ref name=":3" /> For state elections, it was not until the [[Warren Court]] ruled 6–3 in ''[[Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections]]'' (1966) that all state poll taxes were unconstitutional as violating the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the Fourteenth Amendment.<ref name=":4" /> This removed a burden on the poor.<ref name="Scher2015" /><ref name="NHLTS2009" />
* In 1971, the [[Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution|26th Amendment]] ratified, which granted suffrage for men and women aged 18.
* Currently 4 million American citizens living in the [[Territories of the United States]] do not have representation in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and the [[United States Senate]].
|-
| Uruguay
| 1918
| {{date?}}
| [[Women's suffrage in Uruguay|1932]]
| {{date?}}
| With the 1918 Uruguayan Constitution.
|-
| Venezuela
| {{date?}}
| {{date?}}
| [[Women's suffrage in Venezuela|1946]]
| {{date?}}
| 
|-
| Zimbabwe
| 1979
| {{date?}}
| 1919
| 1979
| Universal suffrage was introduced in the 1978 Internal Settlement between Ian Smith and Abel Muzorewa. The 1979 Lancaster House constitution agreed to accommodate the nationalists and also affirmed universal suffrage but with a special role for whites. Universal suffrage with no special consideration for race came in 1987. Before 1978, Rhodesia (the name for the region that would become Zimbabwe in 1980) had a merit qualification to vote. This was controversial because it excluded the vast majority of native Africans. Though white women were granted the right to vote in 1919.
|}

==See also==
* [[Democracy indices]]
* [[Equality before the law]]
* [[List of suffragists and suffragettes]]
* [[List of women's rights activists]]
* [[One man, one vote]]
* [[One person, one vote]]
* [[Suffrage for Americans with disabilities]]
* [[Suffragette]]
* [[Timeline of women's suffrage]]
* [[Umbrella Movement]]
** [[2014 Hong Kong protests]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==

* Duong, Kevin (2020). "What Was Universal Suffrage?". ''Theory & Event''. '''23''' (1): 29–65.

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20200922051053/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/prereform.html Limited suffrage in England prior to the 1832 reforms]
* [https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5036602.stm Finnish centennial celebration]
* "[[s:Have you heard the news?|Have you heard the news?]]", a pamphlet published by an anonymous English freeman in 1835
* ''[[s:An address to the middle and working classes engaged in trade and manufactures throughout the empire on the necessity of union at the present crisis|An address to the middle and working classes engaged in trade and manufactures throughout the empire on the necessity of union at the present crisis]]'' (1842) by [[Richard Gardner (MP)|Richard Gardner]]

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{{Particular human rights}}
{{Discrimination}}
{{Western culture}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Universal Suffrage}}
[[Category:Suffrage]]
[[Category:Equality rights]]
[[Category:Universalism]]
[[Category:Democratization]]