Editing Election (section)

==Electorate==
===Suffrage===
The question of who may vote is a central issue in elections. The electorate does not generally include the entire population; for example, many countries prohibit those who are under the age of majority from voting. All jurisdictions require a minimum age for voting.

In Australia, [[Aboriginal people]] were not given the right to vote until 1962 (see [[Australian referendum, 1967 (Aboriginals)|1967 referendum entry]]) and in 2010 the federal government removed the rights of prisoners serving for three years or more to vote (a large proportion of whom were Aboriginal Australians).

Suffrage is typically only for citizens of the country, though further limits may be imposed.

In the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in the municipality and is an EU citizen; the nationality of the country of residence is not required. 
[[File:ElezioneMilano.jpg|thumb|right|Campaigners working on posters in [[Milan]], Italy, 2004]]
In some countries, voting is required by law. Eligible voters may be subject to punitive measures such as a fine for not casting a vote. In Western Australia, the penalty for a first time offender failing to vote is a $20.00 fine, which increases to $50.00 if the offender refused to vote prior.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/vote/failure-vote|title=Failure to Vote {{!}} Western Australian Electoral Commission|website=www.elections.wa.gov.au|access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref>

===Voting population===
Historically the size of eligible voters, the electorate, was small having the size of groups or communities of privileged men like [[aristocrats]] and men of a city ([[Citizens#History|citizens]]).

With the growth of the number of people with [[bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] citizen rights outside of cities, expanding the term citizen, the electorates grew to numbers beyond the thousands.
Elections with an electorate in the hundred thousands appeared in the final decades of the [[Elections in the Roman Republic|Roman Republic]], by extending voting rights to citizens outside of Rome with the [[Lex Julia#Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis et Sociis Danda (90 BC)|Lex Julia of 90 BC]], reaching an electorate of 910,000 and estimated [[voter turnout]] of maximum 10% in 70 BC,<ref name="Rachel Feig Vishnia pg. 125">Vishnia 2012, p. 125</ref> only again comparable in size to the [[1788–89 United States elections|first elections of the United States]]. At the same time the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] had in 1780 about 214,000 eligible voters, 3% of the whole population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm|title=Exhibitions > Citizenship > The struggle for democracy > Getting the vote > Voting rights before 1832|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=11 June 2020}}</ref> [[Naturalization]] can reshape the electorate of a country.<ref name="r054">{{cite web | last=Jordan | first=Miriam | title=Immigrants Are Becoming U.S. Citizens at Fastest Clips in Years | website=The New York Times | date=12 August 2024 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/12/us/immigration-us-citizenship-rates.html | access-date=13 August 2024}}</ref>