Causes for the deprivation of the electoral right of individuals are reduced to a minimum. The only ones denied this right are those who are placed under guardianship and those who have been deprived of their civic rights by a court decision. Bankrupts and paupers preserved their electoral rights, in contrast to their situation before the war. Soldiers who had taken part in the elections for the National Assembly were again disenfranchised so long as they remained under colours. Finally certain other conditions, which did not involve the loss of electoral rights, still prevented their exercise: detention in institutions for mental ailments and imprisonment, including preventive imprisonment. The laws specified, however, that individuals imprisoned for political reasons could demand that measures be taken to permit them to exercise the right to vote. To be able to vote, when one is an elector, one has to be entered on an electoral list or on an electoral roll, or be furnished with an “electoral certificate.” These last two institutions are unknown in France and must be explained. Germany ignores the principle known as permanence of electoral lists. Before the Revolution electoral lists were in principle revised for each election to the Reichstag. But the granting to women of the right to vote, which doubled the number of electors, and the fact that thereafter the electors of the Reich would have to vote not only every four years for the Reichstag, but also in the election of the President, and in cases of referendum, initiative, and plebiscites provided by the Constitution, have increased the difficulty of retaining the former system pure and simple. There were in addition different proposals made to abolish it completely and to replace it by a procedure which would do away entirely with electoral lists. There would be given to each elector an “electoral passport” or a “citizenship card”[28] which would be sufficient to enable him to vote. But these propositions were rejected because of the considerable cost of the passports or of the cards, and because of the technical difficulties of furnishing adequate photographs of all the electors, necessitated by this scheme; and in addition because for certain votes, such as plebiscites and initiatives, it is necessary that the number of individuals having the right to vote be known, which would be difficult according to the systems proposed.