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Did Chartism end in complete failure? In the 1850s, many Chartists switched their support from Chartism to the new Liberal Party. Chartists did not win the right for all men to vote during the lifetime of the Chartist movement. However, today, all but one of the 6 points of the ‘People’s Charter’ has become reality – the one exception being the Chartists’ demands for annual Parliaments. Today elections have to be held at least every 5 years, rather than every 7 years in the early 19th century. Chartism helped to change people’s ideas about politics and their own individual rights. In this sense, the Chartists did not fail, but success took rather longer than they might have hoped. On the next page is a list of all the changes to the voting system that have taken place in the United Kingdom from the Chartist period up to the present time.