Era 04 · 1800 — 1950

The Ballot

Who consents

Rule by count

Pulse cycle

4.5s

Consent in principle is meaningless without a mechanism. The 19th and early 20th centuries were the long, contested project of actually counting that consent — extending the vote from property-owning men to working men, to women, to racial minorities. It is a project that is, in many places, still unfinished.

Events in this era

Sep 1893

New Zealand — Universal Women's Suffrage

On September 19, 1893, Governor Lord Glasgow signed the Electoral Act, making New Zealand the first self-governing country to extend voting rights to all women, including Maori women. Kate Sheppard led the campaign, gathering a petition signed by roughly 32,000 women, nearly a quarter of the adult female population of the colony. Women first voted in the November 28 general election, with female turnout at 82 percent. Australia followed in 1902, Finland in 1906, the UK (partial) in 1918, the US in 1920. The precedent proved universal suffrage was administratively workable.

First proof that universal suffrage was administratively workable

Dec 10, 1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris on December 10, 1948, by a vote of 48 in favor, zero against, and 8 abstentions (the Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa). Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the drafting committee; Canadian John Humphrey produced the first draft; French jurist Rene Cassin revised it. Article 21 declared that the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government, expressed through periodic and genuine elections. It was a near-global codification of the consent-of-the-governed principle, reached three years after the liberation of the Nazi camps.

Global standard; still unmet by roughly half the world's governments

Aug 6, 1965

US Voting Rights Act

Signed by Lyndon Johnson five months after the Selma march. Banned literacy tests and poll taxes. Required federal oversight of voter registration in jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination. Black voter registration in the Deep South roughly doubled within two years.

Effective franchise extended a century after the 15th Amendment

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