Editing Suffrage (section)

===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>