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選舉權 (英文Suffrage源自拉丁文suffragium一字，意即"投票") 公民權中與選舉相關之權利，或對該權利之行使，又稱政治權利(political franchise, or “the franchise”)，此詞可追溯至法國人之先祖法蘭克人為自由民之時。

在歷史上，曾有多群的人民，因隸屬於封建領主或其他原因不具備自由民的身份，而不獲選舉權。這種排斥性的作法有時在選罷法中有明文規定；有時以表面上無涉於排除選舉權的施行細則行之（例如，美國南方在權利法案制訂之前，曾以人頭稅與識字要求排除被解放的黑奴的選舉權。）有時某些群體是有選舉權，但因選舉制度或政府體制上的因素使其選票與其他群體並不等值。

民主政府的法統通常須由普選產生。

目录 1 選舉權的形式 1.1 普選 1.2 婦女選舉權 1.3 男性公民選舉權 1.4 平等選舉權 1.5 資格性選舉選 1.6 強制性選舉選 2 擯斥於選舉選以外的形式 2.1 宗教 2.2 社會階級 2.3 年齡 3 牢囚與罪犯 4 哥倫比亞特區 5 世界各地選舉選之變革 5.1 聯合王國選舉選之變革 5.2 美國選舉權之變革 6 今日的選舉選 7 參見 8 外部連結

[编辑] 選舉權的形式

[编辑] 普選

Universal suffrage is the term used to describe a situation in which the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief or social status. It typically does not extend a right to vote to all citizens or residents of a region. Distinctions are frequently made in regard to nationality, age, and occasionally mental capacity or criminal convictions.

New Zealand was the first country to grant limited universal suffrage in 1893. Finland was the first European country to grant universal suffrage to its citizens in 1906, and the first country to make every citizen eligible to run for parliament.

[编辑] 婦女選舉權

Women's suffrage was the goal of the suffragists and the "Suffragettes". In many western democracies this was a major Liberal and Democratic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with suffragists protesting vigorously for many years, demanding equality with men, and the right to vote. Prominent suffragists include Kate Sheppard, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Emmeline Pankhurst, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In New Zealand, the struggle for suffrage was the most powerful social movement of the late 19th century. It was championed by the Women's Christian Temperance Union (originally a prohibition lobby) and led by Kate Sheppard.

In the USA, Alice Paul was a prominent suffragist and also the leader of the American NWP (National Women's Party).

The main difference between the two parties, is that the Suffragists or the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies) were largely peaceful, and believed that the way forward to Women's suffrage was in a non-violent manner, as opposed to the publicity seeking violence of the Suffragettes or WPSU (Women's Social and Political Union). On one occasion the WPSU unleashed 100 rats at a polling station in New Hampshire.

[编辑] 男性公民選舉權

Manhood suffrage — equal right for men to vote.

[编辑] 平等選舉權

Equal suffrage is a term sometimes confused with Universal suffrage, although its meaning is the removal of graded votes, where a voter could possess a number of votes in accordance with income, wealth or social status, so that everyone's vote is equal.

[编辑] 資格性選舉選

Census suffrage is the opposite of Equal suffrage, meaning that the votes cast by those eligible to vote are not equal, but are weighed differently according to the persons rank in the census (e.g., people with high income have more votes than those with a small income). The suffrage may therefore be limited, usually to the propertied classes, but can still be universal, including, for instance, women or black people, if they meet the census.

[编辑] 強制性選舉選

Compulsory suffrage is a system where those who are eligible to vote are required by law to do so. Australia is an example of a country practicing this form of suffrage.

[编辑] 擯斥於選舉選以外的形式

[编辑] 宗教

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Roman Catholics were denied the right to vote until 1829.

[编辑] 社會階級

Up until the nineteenth century, many Western democracies had property qualifications in their electoral laws, that generally meant that only people who owned land could vote. Today, those laws have largely been abolished. However, in some countries the practice still applies, although perhaps unintentionally, as most democratic countries require an address for the electors to be qualified to vote. In practice, this may exclude many who have not the means to own or rent living quarters, such as the homeless. Many countries also discriminate on the basis of criminal or psychiatric record (see below), which are very strongly correlated with class and race.

[编辑] 年齡

Despite the best of universal suffrage, all modern democracies require voters to meet age qualifications to vote and deny the right to vote to individuals below the voting age. Often overlooked, young people under the voting age make up 20-50% of the population in some countries, and have no political representation. Worldwide voting ages are not consistent, fluctuating between countries and indeed within countries, usually between 15 (currently only in Iran) and 21.

In all democratic countries, young people are excluded from voting in local and national elections, though the voting age is set generally at 18. The option of qualifying by 'rite of passage' tests to certify a person's competence to vote responsibly is yet to be widely debated. One analogy is this: the 'right' to drive a motor vehicle is taken for granted, but few advocate that people of any age should be free to drive motor vehicles on public roads without first demonstrating practical skills and theoretical knowledge.

There have been proposals to lower the national voting age to 16 in the United Kingdom, one of the arguments for which being that, as people of 16 can marry, join the Army and pay taxes, for example, they should be allowed a say in the country's running.

[编辑] 牢囚與罪犯

Many countries have disenfranchisement of sentenced prisoners. In the United States, voting privileges are denied to prisoners by some states, but several other countries (including most countries of the European Union) allow all prisoners to vote, regardless of time served and nature of the crime. Some countries, such as Canada, allowed only prisoners serving a term of less than 2 years the right to vote. However in Canada, this restriction was found unconstitutional in 2002 by the Supreme Court of Canada in Sauvé v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer), and as a result, all prisoners were allowed to vote as of the 2004 Canadian Election. Some countries, and some U.S. states, also deny the right to vote to those convicted of serious crimes after they are released from prison. In some cases (e.g. the felony disenfranchisement laws found in many U.S. states) the denial of the right to vote is automatic on a felony conviction; in other cases (e.g. provisions found in many parts of continental Europe) the denial of the right to vote is an additional penalty that the court can choose to impose, over and above the penalty of imprisonment, such as in France or Germany. In the Republic of Ireland, prisoners are not specifically denied the right to vote, but are also not provided access to a ballot station, so are effectively disenfranchised. Another exemption from the right to vote is made by some countries for people in psychiatric facilities. In the United Kingdom, peers who are members of the House of Lords (all up until reforms in 1999) are also excluded from voting in general elections.

[编辑] 哥倫比亞特區

Residents of Washington DC have been excluded, in whole or in part, from voting since Congress took over the District of Columbia in 1801. Under the argument that residents of the District would exert undue influence over the government, the Congress, under the power asserted for it in the Constitution to legislate "in all cases whatsoever" over the District, has denied US citizens the right to vote and be represented, and to control their own local affairs, for the past 200 years (since 1801).

[编辑] 世界各地選舉選之變革

[编辑] 聯合王國選舉選之變革

Suffrage in the United Kingdom was slowly changed over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries to allow universal suffrage through the use of the Reform Acts and the Representation of the People Acts.

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

[编辑] 美國選舉權之變革

In the United States, suffrage is determined by the separate states, not federally. There is no national "right to vote". The states and the people have changed the U.S. Constitution five times to disallow states from limiting suffrage, thereby expanding it.

• 美國憲法第十五修正案 (1870年)：法律不可以種族因素限制選舉權。
• 美國憲法第十九修正案 (1920年)：法律不可以性別因素限制選舉權。
• 美國憲法第二十三修正案 (1961年)：哥倫比亞特區居民可選舉正副總統。
• 美國憲法第二十四修正案 (1964年)：國會與州府皆不可因人頭稅或他種賦稅限制人民在聯邦性選舉中之投票權。
• 美國憲法第二十六修正案 (1971)：對於18歲以上之國民，法律不可以年齡因素限制選舉權。

[编辑] 今日的選舉選

Today, in most democracies, the right to vote is granted as a birth right, without discrimination with regard to race, ethnicity, class or gender. Without any qualifying test (such as literacy), citizens or subjects above the voting age in a country can normally vote in its elections. Resident aliens can vote in local elections in some countries and in others exceptions are made for citizens of countries with which they have close links (e.g. some members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and the members of the European Union).

[编辑] 參見

• List of democracy and elections-related topics
• Electorate
• Democracy
• Direct democracy
• OMOV
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Right of foreigners to vote
• Women's suffrage
• History of feminism

[编辑] 外部連結

• Index of articles on Voter Registration including many on compulsory registration/voting - article from the ACE Project
• Information on the Renewal of the Voting Rights Act from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• ReclaimDemocracy.org - Establishing a Much Needed Constitutional Right to Vote
• FairVote - Center for Voting and Democracy Right to Vote Initiative resources page, highlighting information pertaining to the right to vote and the U.S. Constitution
• National Youth Rights Association
• Votes at 16 Campaign to Lower the Voting Age in the UK
• Video about petition to end Women Suffrage in the U.S.A. :)
• VoteSizing.org - The Democratic Empowerment Party promotes sizing votes to favor poorer people.