Voting rights in Sweden

It’s election day and Danni is going to vote. She’s waiting to get into the voting station. In Sweden there’s a parliamentary election every fourth year, when all Swedish citizens over 18 are allowed to vote. In Sweden, this is called universal and equal voting rights. But this hasn’t always been the case.

The year is 1911. Sweden has a parliament divided into two parts: two chambers. The county councils and the larger municipalities decide who will govern the first chamber. Who governs the second chamber is decided by means of an election. People can vote in this election if they’re male, at least 24 years old, and have done their military service.

You can not be poor, nor be in prison. Women are not allowed to vote at all. Many think that this is unfair, and want to change the law. They’re inspired by women in other countries, who also are fighting for the right to vote. In Finland, for example, women already have voting rights.

In Sweden, signatures are collected. The movement is trying to inform, sometimes protest, to get voting rights. Some politicians, mostly social democrats and liberals, have now also started to raise this question. On May the 24th 1919, Parliament makes the decision to allow women to vote in general elections. They call this universal and equal voting rights.

They also lower the voting age to 23 years. In the autumn of 1921, women are allowed to vote in a general election for the first time. But, does this mean that everyone can vote now? No. If you’re in prison for example.

Or if you’re poor, you are still not allowed to vote. It takes until 1937 for prisoners get their right to vote, and until 1945 for those without a secure economic status to be able to vote. The voting age is also lowered a bit more, this time to 21 years. In 1965 it becomes 20, In 1969, 19, and in 1975 it becomes 18 years. But there’s a group of people who still aren’t allowed to vote.

That is, those who have intellectual disabilities, and those suffering from certain mental illnesses. They are counted as not able to take care of themselves, nor make these kinds of decisions. They are labeled unqualified. It takes a long time, all the way until 1989, before the qualification law is lifted. Now, all citizens over 18 are counted as qualified, regardless of disabilities or illnesses.

So, even if it was called “universal and equal voting rights” in 1921, it wasn’t. Some weren’t allowed to vote until 70 years later, in the 1990’s. And there are still citizens in Sweden who aren’t allowed to vote – those under the age of 18. If your birthday is the day after the election day, you can’t vote until four years later than a friend of the same age who is born before or on election day. Is that fair?

So who is allowed to vote in a Swedish parliamentary election? Those who are 18 years old on election day at the latest, who are Swedish citizens, and are or have been registered as residing in Sweden. And Danni… oh, she has already voted. Whom did you vote for Danni? ...no, that’s right. You don’t have to say, if you don’t want to.

This is called a secret ballot.