Diasporas, Extraterritorial Representation, and the Right to Vote

Author(s):  
FRÉDÉRIC MÉGRET ◽  
RAPHAËL GIRARD

AbstractThis article argues that Canada’s policy of refusing extraterritorial electoral constituencies within its borders does not protect its territorial sovereignty or add any protection against foreign interference in its domestic affairs. Rather, its main effect is to alienate thousands of dual or foreign nationals residing in Canada by preventing them from being directly represented in their home state’s national assembly or legislature and, in some cases, from exercising their only voting rights.

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Bäumler

ABSTRACT Democracy means power to the people, but it is not always clear who belongs to "the people". The question has become pertinent in the age of migration where large groups of foreigners permanently reside outside their countries of nationality. The economic, cultural, and political integration of these foreigners is one of the pressing problems faced by democratic States in both the developed and developing worlds. One question is : whether resident non-citizens should be granted the right to vote. The answer to this question depends on who belongs to "the people". In federal and quasi-federal States with multiple levels of government the further question arises : whether "the people" is a homogenous concept that applies uniformly across all levels of government. This article contributes to the debate about the right of foreigners to vote in democratic States with multiple levels of government, such as, South Africa and Kenya. It does so by discussing the German response to the problems mentioned above. The dominant view of the German Federal Constitutional Court since the 1990s has been that "the people" only includes "German citizens" , and that attempts by lower levels of government to extend the right to vote to foreigners from Africa and elsewhere are unconstitutional. In this article I explore and critique this conventional view. I then present a positive case for the extension of voting rights to resident non-citizens under the German Constitution. Many of the arguments would apply with equal force to the debate about the right to vote of foreigners in African multi-level democracies, such as, South Africa and Kenya. Keywords: Denizenship, Citizenship, Voting rights, Nationality law, Multi-level government, The people, Foreigners, Residents, Affected persons principle, Democracy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James McIntyre ◽  
Masum Khwaja ◽  
Venkata Yelamanchili ◽  
Sobia Naz ◽  
Maria Clarke

Aims and methodThis study explores knowledge and uptake of the voting rights of adult in-patients in the 2010 UK general election. A clinician-completed survey was used.ResultsEligible to vote psychiatric adult in-patients were half as likely to register as the general population and half as likely to vote if registered. Nine out of ten of those unregistered cited a lack of knowledge of their eligibility to vote or of the registration process. Long-stay patients were particularly disenfranchised.Clinical implicationsMany patients and staff remain unaware of the new rules which have given a greater proportion of in-patients the right to vote and have simplified the registration and voting processes. This information barrier may be addressed in future elections by providing timely written information to both patients and staff. Once registered, patients may need further support to overcome practical and psychological barriers, and cast their vote.


1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Rose

Universal suffrage is a commonplace in today's political world. In modern Western states it seems self-explanatory that there should be a general right to vote, or at least the pretense of such a right; and it is rather the exception to universal suffrage that requires explanation—at best as a quaint local peculiarity, at worst as a sign of pigheadedness or paranoia. In our era of bland populism, it is easy to forget the nineteenth century's passion over suffrage matters. But passion there was: from the sanscullottes of the 1790's to the suffragettes of the 1910's, no decade of the nineteenth century, no part of the Atlantic world was entirely free from this all-important question. Indeed suffrage issues erupted regularly whenever and wherever internal political tensions ran highest. Anti-Bourbon agitation in Restoration France, Chartist demands in England, Negro emancipation in the United States, demands for reform of Bismarckian Germany's Prussian heartland—these issues spanned the century, and they all contained at least some taint of the suffrage question. The European revolutions of 1848–49 came roughly at the mid-point of this century-long suffrage debate, and these revolutions too raised in various ways the issue of the right to vote. And one of the most interesting discussions of the franchise question came in February and March of 1849, when Germany's abortive constitutional convention, the Frankfurt National Assembly, turned its attention to an Electoral Law for the lower house of the projected national representative body.


2021 ◽  
pp. 154-177
Author(s):  
Andrés Mauricio Guzmán Rincón ◽  
Adriana Caballero Pérez

The right of persons with disabilities to vote is well-codified in international human rights law. Disability scholars, however, argue that persons with disabilities are frequently denied the right to vote. What are the recurrent concepts used by disability scholars to discuss this issue? From a content literature review, four main concepts are regularly used by authors to elaborate on voting rights in the context of disability: “political participation,” “barriers,” “electoral practices” that support or constraint the full and effective exercise of the right to vote, and “electoral-assistive devices” as technology solutions to assist voters with disabilities. Discussing all these concepts is uncommon in other literature reviews. Findings illustrate that an abundance of publications focuses on political participation of persons with intellectual or mental impairments. Such publications tend to concentrate only on statutory barriers. Less prevalent is academic literature regarding persons with other impairments, as well as procedural barriers. Even more sparse are publications elaborating on social practices. Similarly, assistive technology is not often discussed as a tool for the facilitation of the right to vote of persons with disabilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1/2020) ◽  
pp. 141-164
Author(s):  
Marie Therese Mundsperger

Although it is largely unknown, women had some voting rights in the 19th century in the Habsburg monarchy, especially the right to vote in the municipality and on the provincial level. Suffrage at that time was based on the two pillars of property and education rather than gender. It was undisputed for a long time that women could get the right to vote due to their tax payments. The fact that women could also be included into the ‘intelligence’ electoral class was controversial, as shown by some decisions by the Austrian high courts. It was only towards the end of the 19th century that the gender criterion began to prevail in election regulations and women were increasingly excluded from the right to vote, which led to the emergence of the Austrian women’s movement. The monarchy fell in 1918 and the granting of universal women’s voting rights was finally embodied in the proclamation of the Austrian republic on 12 November 1918.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Budi Lesmana

Election as a means of popular sovereignty is a vehicle for every citizen who has the right to choose to use his political rights and voice in choosing a leader. Without exception, based on the provisions in the legislation, every citizen can use this right. In the implementation of the 2019 Election, the KPU strives maximally to accommodate all citizens who have the right to vote in the DPT. Repairs made many times are as an effort to increase voter involvement in elections. One voter group that is a public concern and discourse is mental accessibility or more commonly referred to as People with Mental Disorder (ODGJ) who voted in the 2019 election. Outside the context that these mentally ill people are under forgiveness according to civil law, the constitution itself basically gives the same rights to people who have mental illness to choose. Even in the Election Law itself there is no prohibition explicitly governing this. This means that mentally ill people also have the right to exercise their right to vote. Not all mentally ill people have the awareness to choose. Of course, if there are certain conditions that are allowed to choose. But how is the implementation of the business and rules in the field as an effort to increase voter participation by the organizers? And what is important is whether the application of direct, general, free, confidential and fair election principles can also be felt by ODGJ voters. Can their rights be used, but only choose formalities without secrecy. Don't let the voting rights of citizens with certain conditions be given an opportunity to commit fraud in the election. Fraud is detrimental to the voting rights of people who have mental disorders because it is considered easy to be cheated. Keywords: Elections, Mental Disability (ODGJ), Voting Rights, Participation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Schroedel ◽  
Ryan Hart

The struggle for Native American voting rights has lasted more than two centuries. Although the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to indigenous peoples born within the geographic boundaries of the United States, it did not ensure the right to vote. Because the Constitution gives states the power to determine the “times, places, and manner of holding elections,” many states statutorily denied Native Americans the franchise until federal lawsuits forced them to change. Having the statutory right to vote, however, did not ensure that it could be exercised in a meaningful way. Since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act there have been more than ninety voting rights cases involving Native Americans. While the overall historical trend has been toward extending the vote, periods of enhanced voting rights often have been followed by periods of retrenchment. In this article, we argue that the traditional frameworks used to explain racial inequalities fail to account for the unique character of relations between indigenous peoples and the U.S. government, and we propose a tripartite approach that draws from studies in core–periphery development and “racial institutional orders,” but also considers the many ways that tribal identities intersect with these.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Nur’l Yakin Mch

The increasing number of White Group (Abstentions) in every election in Indonesia which is the country's lack of nomokratic indicates people in using their voting rights. When attempts were made government in various ways such as dissemination of the importance to follow the election, but still a high percentage of non-voters there are indications tend to increase. Not only that, a lot of people who misinterpret and fail to understand what is meant in the legislation on the use of the right to vote in the election, it may be because the law is written textual status right but not the obligation to vote. While the Shura offer an alternative in solving this problem, namely the implementation of laws obligation to choose a leader.


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