Editing Suffrage (section)

==Basis of exclusion{{anchor|Forms_of_exclusion_from_suffrage}}==<!-- Most of this section is linked from [[Ann Jebb]] -->
{{See also | Disenfranchisement}}

===Gender===
{{Main|Women's suffrage}}
[[File:1912_Ohio_women_Headquarters.jpg|thumb| Women's Suffrage Headquarters on Euclid Avenue in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]], in 1912]]
In ancient [[Athenian democracy|Athens]], often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult, male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote. Through subsequent centuries, Europe was generally ruled by monarchs, though various forms of parliament arose at different times. The high rank ascribed to [[abbess]]es within the [[Catholic Church]] permitted some women the right to sit and vote at national assemblies – as with various high-ranking abbesses in Medieval Germany, who were ranked among the independent princes of the empire. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Abbess |title=Abbess |encyclopedia=Original Catholic Encyclopedia |date=21 July 2010 |access-date=26 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114130058/http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Abbess |archive-date=14 January 2012}}</ref>

Marie Guyart, a French nun who worked with the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] peoples of Canada during the seventeenth century, wrote in 1654 regarding the suffrage practices of [[Iroquois]] women, "These female chieftains are women of standing amongst the savages, and they have a deciding vote in the councils. They make decisions there like the men, and it is they who even delegated the first ambassadors to discuss peace."<ref>''Women Mystics Confront the Modern World'' (Marie-Florine Bruneau: State University of New York: 1998: p. 106)</ref> The Iroquois, like many First Nations peoples in North America, had a [[matrilineal]] [[kinship system]]. Property and descent were passed through the female line. Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them.

The emergence of many modern democracies began with male citizens obtaining the right to vote in advance of female citizens, except in the [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]], where universal suffrage without mention of age or sex was introduced in 1840; however, a constitutional amendment in 1852 rescinded female voting and put property qualifications on male voting.

Voting rights for women were introduced into [[international law]] by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission, whose elected chair was [[Eleanor Roosevelt]]. In 1948 the [[United Nations]] adopted the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]; Article&nbsp;21 states: "(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."

The [[United Nations General Assembly]] adopted the [[Convention on the Political Rights of Women]], which went into force in&nbsp;1954, enshrining the equal rights of women to vote, hold office, and access public services as set out by national laws. One of the most recent jurisdictions to acknowledge women's full right to vote was [[Bhutan]] in [[2008 Bhutanese general election|2008]] (its first national elections).<ref>{{cite journal |first=Mian |last=Ridge |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2008/0325/p04s01-wosc.html |title=Bhutan makes it official: it's a democracy. |journal=The Christian Science Monitor |date=25 March 2008 |access-date=2 September 2011}}</ref> Most recently, in 2011 [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia|King Abdullah]] of Saudi Arabia let women vote in the [[2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|2015 local elections]] (and from then on) and be appointed to the [[Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia|Consultative Assembly]].

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

In England and Ireland, several Acts practically disenfranchised non-Anglicans or non-Protestants by imposing an oath before admission to vote or to stand for office. The 1672 and 1678 [[Test Act]]s forbade non-Anglicans to hold public offices, and the 1727 [[Disenfranchising Act]] took away Catholics' voting rights in Ireland, which were restored only in 1788. Jews could not even be naturalized. An attempt was made to change this situation, but the [[Jewish Naturalization Act 1753]] provoked such reactions that it was repealed the following year. [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]] ([[Methodists]] and [[Presbyterians]]) were only allowed to run for election to the [[British House of Commons]] starting in 1828, Catholics in 1829 (following the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829]], which extended the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791]]), and Jews in 1858 (with the [[Emancipation of the Jews in England]]). [[Benjamin Disraeli]] could only begin his political career in 1837 because he had been converted to Anglicanism at the age of 12.

In several states in the U.S. after the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], Jews, [[Quakers]] or Catholics were denied voting rights and/or forbidden to run for office.<ref name="Williamson 1960">{{Citation |title=American Suffrage. From property to democracy |first=Chilton |last=Williamson |author-link=Chilton Williamson |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1960}}</ref> The [[Delaware Constitution of 1776]] stated that:<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/de02.htm |title=Constitution of Delaware, 1776 |access-date=7 December 2007 |publisher=The Avalon Project at [[Yale Law School]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130011903/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/de02.htm |archive-date=30 November 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><blockquote>Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat, or entering upon the execution of his office, shall (...) also make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: ''I, A B. do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.''</blockquote>This was repealed by article I, section&nbsp;2 of the [[Delaware Constitution of 1792|1792 Constitution]]: "No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under this State".<ref>{{Citation |url=http://members.tripod.com/candst/cnst_de.htm |title=State Constitution (Religious Sections) – Delaware |access-date=7 December 2007 |publisher=The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State}}</ref> The 1778 [[South Carolina Constitution|Constitution of the State of South Carolina]] stated that "No person shall be eligible to sit in the house of representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion",<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/sc02.htm |title=An Act for establishing the constitution of the State of South Carolina, 19 March 1778 |access-date=5 December 2007 |publisher=The Avalon Project at [[Yale Law School]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213082151/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/sc02.htm |archive-date=13 December 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> the 1777 [[Georgia (U.S. state) Constitution|Constitution of the State of Georgia]] (art. VI) that "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county (...) and they shall be of the Protestent ''(sic)'' religion".<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ga02.htm |title=Constitution of Georgia |date=5 February 1777 |access-date=7 December 2007 |publisher=The Avalon Project at [[Yale Law School]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213082118/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/ga02.htm |archive-date=13 December 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> In [[Maryland]], voting rights and eligibility were extended to Jews in 1828.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.msa.md.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc4800/sc4872/003183/html/m3183-1670.html |title=An Act for the relief of Jews in Maryland, passed 26 February 1825 |date=26 February 1825 |publisher=Archives of Maryland |volume=3183 |page=1670 |access-date=5 December 2007}}</ref>

In [[Canada]], several religious groups ([[Mennonites]], [[Hutterites]], [[Doukhobors]]) were disenfranchised by the wartime Elections Act of 1917, mainly because they opposed military service. This disenfranchisement ended with the closure of the First World War, but was renewed for Doukhobors from 1934 (via the ''Dominion Elections Act'') to 1955.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=gen&document=chap3&dir=his&lang=e&textonly=false |title=A History of the Vote in Canada, Chapter 3 Modernization, 1920–1981 |publisher=Elections Canada |access-date=6 December 2007}}</ref>

The first Constitution of modern [[Romania]] in 1866 provided in article 7 that only Christians could become Romanian citizens. [[History of the Jews in Romania|Jews native to Romania]] were declared stateless persons. In 1879, under pressure from the [[Treaty of Berlin (1878)|Berlin Peace Conference]], this article was amended, granting non-Christians the right to become Romanian citizens, but naturalization was granted on a case-by-case basis and was subject to Parliamentary approval. An application took over ten years to process. Only in 1923 was a new constitution adopted, whose article 133 extended Romanian citizenship to all Jewish residents and equality of rights to all Romanian citizens.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/mosteniri_ale_culturii_iudaice_03_13.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914002239/http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/mosteniri_ale_culturii_iudaice_03_13.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=14 September 2012 |title=Chronology – From the History Museum of the Romanian Jews; Hasefer Publishing House |publisher=The Romanian Jewish Community |access-date=6 December 2007}}</ref>

===Wealth, tax class, social class===
[[File:Manifestace za hlasovací právo 1905.jpg|thumb|Demonstration for universal right to vote, Prague, [[Austria-Hungary]], 1905]]
Until the nineteenth century, many Western proto-democracies had [[property qualification]]s in their electoral laws; e.g. only landowners could vote (because the only tax for such countries was the property tax), or the voting rights were weighted according to the amount of taxes paid (as in the [[Prussian three-class franchise]]). Most countries abolished the property qualification for national elections in the late nineteenth century, but retained it for local government elections for several decades. Today these laws have largely been abolished, although the [[Homelessness|homeless]] may not be able to register because they lack regular addresses.

In the [[United Kingdom]], until the [[House of Lords Act 1999]], [[peerage|peers]] who were members of the [[House of Lords]] were excluded from voting for the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] as they were not commoners. Although there is nothing to prevent the monarch from voting, it is considered improper for the monarch to do so.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/elections-faq-page/#jump-link-1 |title=UK Parliamentary Website Election FAQs |access-date=16 August 2018 |archive-date=16 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816162124/https://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/elections-faq-page/#jump-link-1 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, many nations made voters pay to elect officials, keeping impoverished people from being fully enfranchised. These laws were in effect in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.<ref name="de Ferranti 2004">{{Cite book |url=http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/804741468045832887/pdf/28989.pdf |title=Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History? |last=de Ferranti |first=David |publisher=The World Bank |year=2004 |location=Washington DC, USA |pages=109–122}}</ref>

===Knowledge===
Sometimes the right to vote has been limited to people who had achieved a certain level of education or passed a certain test. In some US states, "[[literacy test]]s" were previously implemented to exclude those who were illiterate.<ref name="Transcript of Voting Rights Act 1965">[http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=100&page=transcript Transcript of Voting Rights Act (1965)] U.S. National Archives.</ref> Black voters in the South were often deemed by election officials to have failed the test even when they did not.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm |title=Civil Rights Movement – Literacy Tests & Voter Applications |website=crmvet.org |access-date=10 December 2018}}</ref> Under the 1961 constitution of [[Rhodesia]], voting on the "A" roll, which elected up to 50 of the 65 members of parliament, was restricted based on education requirements, which in practice led to an overwhelming white vote. Voting on the "B" roll had universal suffrage, but only appointed 15 members of parliament.<ref>Wood, J. R. T. (June 2005). So far and no further! Rhodesia's bid for independence during the retreat from empire 1959–1965. Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing. p. 92. {{ISBN|978-1-4120-4952-8}}.</ref>{{clarify |date=December 2018 |reason= Clarification needed:  What is "A roll" and "B roll"?}}

In the 20th century, many countries other than the US placed voting restrictions on illiterate people, including: [[Bolivia]], [[Brazil]], [[Canada]], [[Chile]], [[Ecuador]], and [[Peru]].<ref name="de Ferranti 2004" />

===Race===
Various countries, usually countries with a dominant race within a wider population, have historically denied the vote to people of particular races, or to all but the dominant race. This has been achieved in a number of ways:
* Official – laws and regulations passed specifically disenfranchising people of particular races (for example, the [[Antebellum United States]], [[Boer republic]]s, pre-apartheid and [[apartheid]] South Africa, or many colonial political systems, who provided suffrage only for white settlers and some privileged non-white groups). Canada and Australia denied suffrage for their indigenous populations until the 1960s.
* Indirect – nothing in law specifically prevents anyone from voting on account of their race, but other laws or regulations are used to exclude people of a particular race. In southern states of the United States of America before the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], [[Poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]], [[literacy test|literacy]] and other tests were used to disenfranchise African-Americans.<ref name="Transcript of Voting Rights Act 1965"/><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''. Retrieved 24 October 2011.</ref> Property qualifications have tended to disenfranchise a minority race, particularly if tribally owned land is not allowed to be taken into consideration. In some cases this was an unintended (but usually welcome) consequence.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} Many African colonies after World War II until decolonization had tough education and property qualifications which practically gave meaningful representation only for rich European minorities.
* Unofficial – nothing in law prevents anyone from voting on account of their race, but people of particular races are intimidated or otherwise prevented from exercising this right. This was a common tactic employed by white Southerners against [[Freedmen]] during the [[Reconstruction Era]] and the following period before more formal methods of disenfranchisement became entrenched. Unofficial discrimination could even manifest in ways which, while allowing the act of voting itself, effectively deprive it of any value – for example, in [[Israel]], the country's [[Arab citizens of Israel|Arab minority]] has maintained a party-system separate from that of the Jewish majority. In the run-up for the country's [[2015 Israeli legsialtive election|2015 elections]], the electoral threshold was raised from 2% to 3.25%, thus forcing the dominant Arab parties – [[Hadash]], the [[United Arab List]], [[Balad (political party)|Balad]] and [[Ta'al]] – either to run under [[Joint List|one list]] or risk losing their parliamentary representation.

===Age===
{{Youth rights sidebar}}
{{Main|Voting age|Age of candidacy}}
All modern democracies require voters to meet age qualifications to vote.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}} Worldwide voting ages are not consistent, differing between countries and even within countries, though the range usually varies between 16 and 21 years. The United Kingdom was the first major democratic nation to [[Representation of the People Act 1969|extend suffrage to those 18 and older in 1969]].<ref name="Bingham 2019">{{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=31 December 2022 |website=History & Policy}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Loughran |first1=Thomas |last2=Mycock |first2=Andrew |last3=Tonge |first3=Jonathan |date=3 November 2021 |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=31 December 2022 |website=British Politics and Policy at LSE}}</ref> The movement to lower the voting age is one aspect of the [[Youth rights]] movement. [[Demeny voting]] has been proposed as a form of proxy voting by parents on behalf of their children who are below the age of suffrage.

[[Nomination rules]] generally include [[age of candidacy]] rules.

===Criminality===
{{main|Disfranchisement#Based on criminal conviction}}

Some countries restrict the voting rights of convicted criminals. Some countries, and [[Felony disenfranchisement in the United States|some U.S. states]], also deny the right to vote to those convicted of serious crimes even after they are released from prison. In some cases (e.g. in [[Felony disenfranchisement in the United States|many U.S. states]]) the denial of the right to vote is automatic upon a felony conviction; in other cases (e.g. France and Germany) deprivation of the vote is meted out separately, and often limited to perpetrators of specific crimes such as those against the electoral system or corruption of public officials. In the [[Republic of Ireland]], prisoners are allowed the right to vote, following [[Hirst v United Kingdom (No 2)|the ''Hirst v UK (No2)'' ruling]], which was granted in 2006. [[Canada]] allowed only prisoners serving a term of less than 2 years the right to vote, but this was found to be unconstitutional in 2002 by the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] in ''[[Sauvé v. Canada (Chief Electoral Officer)]]'', and all prisoners have been allowed to vote as of the [[2004 Canadian federal election]].

===Residency===
Under certain electoral systems elections are held within subnational jurisdictions, thus preventing persons from voting who would otherwise be eligible on the basis that they do not reside within such a jurisdiction, or because they live in an area that cannot participate. In the United States, license plates in Washington, D.C. read "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION," in reference to the district not holding a seat in either the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] or [[United States Senate|Senate]], however residents can vote in presidential elections based on the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution adopted in 1961. Residents of [[Puerto Rico]] enjoy neither.

Sometimes citizens become ineligible to vote because they are [[Right of expatriates to vote in their country of origin|no longer resident in their country of citizenship]]. For example, Australian citizens who have been outside Australia for more than one and fewer than six years may excuse themselves from the requirement to vote in [[Australian electoral system|Australian elections]] while they remain outside Australia (voting in Australia is compulsory for resident citizens).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aec.gov.au/FAQs/Voting_Overseas.htm |title=Australian Electoral Commission, "Voting Overseas – Frequently Asked Questions", 20 November 2007 |publisher=Aec.gov.au |date=10 January 2011 |access-date=21 June 2013}}</ref>
Danish citizens that reside permanently outside Denmark lose their right to vote.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.retsinformation.dk/forms/R0710.aspx?id=162511#Kap1 |title=Lov om valg til Folketinget – Valgret og valgbarhed", 10 April 2014 |access-date=24 October 2015}}</ref>

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

===Nationality===
{{Main|Right of foreigners to vote }}
In most countries, suffrage is limited to citizens and, in many cases, permanent residents of that country. However, some members of supra-national organisations such as the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] and the European Union have granted voting rights to citizens of all countries within that organisation. Until the mid-twentieth century, many Commonwealth countries gave the vote to all British citizens within the country, regardless of whether they were normally resident there. In most cases this was because there was no distinction between [[British subject|British and local citizenship]]. Several countries qualified this with restrictions preventing non-white British citizens such as Indians and British Africans from voting. Under European Union law, citizens of European Union countries can vote in each other's local and European Parliament elections on the same basis as citizens of the country in question, but usually not in national elections.

===Naturalization===
In some countries, naturalized citizens do not have the right to vote or to be a candidate, either permanently or for a determined period.

Article 5 of the 1831 [[Constitution of Belgium|Belgian Constitution]] made a difference between ordinary naturalization, and ''grande naturalisation''. Only (former) foreigners who had been granted ''grande naturalisation'' were entitled to vote, be a candidate for parliamentary elections, or be appointed minister. However, ordinary naturalized citizens could vote for municipal elections.<ref>Delcour, M.C., Traité théorique et pratique du droit électoral appliqué aux élections communales, Louvain, Ickx & Geets, 1842, p.&nbsp;16</ref> Ordinary naturalized citizens and citizens who had acquired Belgian nationality through marriage could vote, but not run as candidates for parliamentary elections in 1976. The concepts of ordinary and grande naturalization were suppressed from the Constitution in 1991.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://suffrage-universel.be/be/00.htm |title=La participation politique des allochtones en Belgique – Historique et situation bruxelloise |first=Pierre-Yves |last=Lambert |publisher=Academia-Bruylant (coll. Sybidi Papers), Louvain-la-Neuve |year=1999 |access-date=6 December 2007}}</ref>

In [[France]], the 1889 Nationality Law barred those who had acquired the French nationality by naturalization or marriage from voting, and from eligibility and access to several public jobs. In 1938 the delay was reduced to five years.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080216092020/http://www.patrick-weil.com/Fichiers%20du%20site/2003%20-%20D%E9bat%20sur%20la%20nationalit%E9%20fran%E7aise%20(Dico%20Sirinelli).pdf "Patrick Weil, Nationalité française (débat sur la)"], dans Jean-François Sirinelli (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la vie politique française au XXe siècle, Paris, PUF, 1995, pp.&nbsp;719–721</ref> These instances of discrimination, as well as others against naturalized citizens, were gradually abolished in 1973 (9 January 1973 law) and 1983.

In [[Morocco]], a former French [[protectorate]], and in Guinea, a former French colony, naturalized citizens are prohibited from voting for five years following their naturalization.<ref>[http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/GT10-9.pdf Nadia Bernoussi, L'évolution du processus électoral au Maroc, 22 December 2005] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121125082353/http://www.rdh50.ma/fr/pdf/contributions/GT10-9.pdf |date=25 November 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ife.org.mx/documentos/AI/semghin.htm |title=art. 3, al. 3, Loi Organique portant code électoral guinéen |publisher=Ife.org.mx |access-date=21 June 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602040907/http://www.ife.org.mx/documentos/AI/semghin.htm |archive-date=2 June 2013}}</ref>

In the [[Federated States of Micronesia]], one must be a Micronesian citizen for at least 15 years to run for parliament.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2213_B.htm |title=Federated States of Micronesia |publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union |access-date=12 December 2007}}</ref>

In [[Nicaragua]], [[Peru]] and the [[Philippines]], only citizens by birth are eligible for being elected to the national legislature; naturalized citizens enjoy only voting rights.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2235_B.htm |title=Nicaragua |publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union |access-date=12 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2251_B.htm |title=Peru |publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union |access-date=12 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2253_B.htm |title=Philippines |publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union |access-date=12 December 2007}}</ref>

In [[Uruguay]], naturalized citizens have the right of eligibility to the parliament after five years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2341_B.htm |title=Uruguay |publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union |access-date=12 December 2007}}</ref>

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

===Function===
In France, an 1872 law, rescinded by a 1945 decree, prohibited all army personnel from voting.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/suffrage_universel/suffrage-extension.asp#militaires |title=Plénitude de la République et extension du suffrage universel |publisher=Assemblée nationale ([[National Assembly of France]]) |language=fr |access-date=5 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219153108/http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/suffrage_universel/suffrage-extension.asp |archive-date=19 December 2007}}</ref>

In Ireland, police (the [[Garda Síochána]] and, before 1925, the [[Dublin Metropolitan Police]]) were barred from voting in national elections, though not [[Local government in the Republic of Ireland|local elections]], from 1923 to 1960.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1923/act/12/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5 |title=Electoral Act, 1923, Section 5 |work=[[Irish Statute Book]] |access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1960/act/43/enacted/en/print |title=Electoral Act, 1960 |work=[[Irish Statute Book]] |pages=sec.3 and Schedule |access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1955110200026 |title=Private Members' Business. – Garda Síochána Franchise—Motion. |date=2 November 1955 |work=Dáil Éireann debates |publisher=Oireachtas |access-date=8 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail1960120600038 |title=Electoral Bill, 1960 – Second Stages |last=Blaney |first=Neil |date=6 December 1960 |work=Dáil Éireann debates |publisher=Oireachtas |quote=One of the important proposals is contained in Section 3 and in the Schedule which provides for the repeal of the prohibition on the registration of Gardaí as voters at Dáil elections. In future, if this provision is enacted, Gardaí can vote at Dáil and Presidential elections and at referendums. |access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref>

The 1876 [[Constitution of Texas]] (article VI, section 1) stated that "The following classes of persons shall not be allowed to vote in this State, to wit: (...) Fifth—All soldiers, marines and seamen, employed in the service of the army or navy of the United States."<ref>{{Citation |url=http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/IART06.html |title=Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) |publisher=Tarlton Law Library, The [[University of Texas School of Law]] |access-date=8 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129120120/http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/text/IART06.html |archive-date=29 January 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In many countries with a [[presidential system]] of government a person is forbidden to be a legislator and an official of the executive branch at the same time. Such provisions are found, for example, in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.