Indigenous Australians were granted the right to vote at federal elections in 1962. The qualifying voting age was lowered to 18 in 1973. The Act The act originally had only five sections. The main provision was section three, which provided that electors in a federal election were to be naturally born British subjects over twenty-one years of age, male or female, married or single, who had lived in Australia for at least six months, and who were on the electoral roll in any federal electoral division. Therefore women gained the right to vote in federal elections even if they were not enfranchised in their state. Section 4 of the act made a range of disqualifications from the general definition in section 3. People who had at any time been convicted of treason could not vote. A person who was under sentence or awaiting sentence for any offence which could be punished by imprisonment for one year or longer (under the law of Australia, or of the United Kingdom, or of any other Dominion of the Empire) was also not allowed to vote. People of "unsound mind" were also disqualified. Indigenous people of Australia, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (excluding New Zealand) were not entitled to enroll to vote in a federal election unless they were already enrolled in a state and met the requirements of Section 41 of the Australian Constitution. Section 41 of the constitution provides that no adult person with a right to vote at an election for a state parliament can be prevented by any law of the Commonwealth from voting at a federal election. This section was subsequently interpreted narrowly to mean that only those who were enrolled to vote in state elections before the passing of the Commonwealth Franchise Act had their right to vote protected under this section of the constitution. Section 44 of the constitution disqualifies a range of people from being elected to the House of Representatives or the Senate, such as any person with an allegiance to a foreign power (such as a citizen of another country), or anyone who is bankrupt or insolvent. However, these people were not prevented from voting by the act. Section 5 of the act provided that no person could vote more than once at an election. Women's suffrage Women in the four states without female suffrage achieved the right to vote in Commonwealth elections