sburg 6 7
Margravate of Istria 5 6
Princely County of Goerz and Gradisca 5 6
City of Trieste and its territory 5 5
Territory of Vorarlberg 4 4
--- ---
425 516

*523. Electoral Qualifications and Procedure.*--By the law of 1907 the
class system of voting was abolished entirely in national elections,
and in its stead was established general, equal, and direct manhood
suffrage. With insignificant exceptions, every male citizen who has
attained the age of twenty-four, and who, at the time the election is
ordered, has resided during at least one year in the commune in which
the right to vote is to be exercised, is qualified to vote for a
parliamentary representative. And any male thirty years of age, or
over, who has been during at least three years a citizen, and who is
possessed of the franchise, is eligible to be chosen as a
representative. Voting is by secret ballot, and an absolute majority
of all votes cast is necessary for a choice. In default of such a
majority there is a second ballot between the two candidates who at
the first test received the largest number of votes. It is stipulated,
further, that when so ordered by the provincial diet, voting shall be
obligatory, under penalty of fine, and in the provinces of Lower
Austria, Upper Austria, Silesia, Salsburg, Moravia, and Vorarlberg
every elector is required by provincial regulation to appear at every
parliamentary election in his district, and to present his ballot, the
penalty for neglect (unless explained to the satisfaction of the
proper magistrate) being a fine ranging from one to fifty crowns. In
the House of Lords, where there was strong opposition to the (p. 472)
principle of manhood suffrage, effort was made to introduce in the act
of 1907 a provision for the conferring of a second vote upon all
voters above the age of thirty-five. By the Emperor and ministry it
was urged, however, that the injection of such a modification would
wreck the measure, and when the lower chamber tacitly pledged itself
to enact a law designed to prevent the "swamping" of the peers by
Imperial appointment at the behest of a parliamentary majority, the
plural voting project was aba