Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release September 15, 2009
Each voter may cast two votes in the Bundestag election
WIESBADEN – The Federal Returning Officer would like to remind voters that, like in the previous Bundestag elections, they will have two votes in the election to the 17th Bundestag on 27 September 2009:
– a first vote for the election of a constituency candidate (on the left-hand side of the ballot paper, printed in black), and
– a second vote for the election of a party's Land list (on the right-hand side of the ballot paper, printed in blue).
On each half of the ballot paper, the voter may mark one candidate/list only, for instance by putting an x into the printed circles. If a voter marks more than one constituency candidate on the left-hand side of the ballot paper, his/her first vote will be invalid. If several marks are made on the right-hand side of the ballot paper (Land lists of the parties), the second vote will be invalid.
Voters are not obliged to cast their first vote and second vote for the same party. Any voter may "split" his/her votes by casting the first vote for the constituency candidate of a specific party and the second vote for the Land list of a different party ("vote splitting").
Also, any voter may limit his/her voting to casting just one vote, either the first or the second vote; in this case, the vote not cast will be considered invalid.
With the first vote, the voter indicates directly which candidate of his/her constituency should represent him/her in the Bundestag, whereas with the second vote the voter votes for the Land list of the party chosen, with all the candidates listed by the party in the ranking shown on that list.
What is decisive for the distribution of seats, that is the strength of the parties in the German Bundestag, generally is the number of second votes cast in the whole of Germany for the parties' Land lists because the 598 seats in the Bundestag are distributed among the parties according to the proportions of second votes won by the parties in all of Germany. So, basically, this is a system of proportional representation. Parties having obtained less than 5 percent of the valid second votes cast in the territory of the Federal Republic or having failed to win at least three direct constituency seats will not be taken into account when the seats are allocated.
Through the first vote to be cast for constituency candidates, the proportional representation is complemented by elements of majority and uninominal voting. In each of the 299 constituencies, the candidate who obtained the simple majority of valid first votes is considered as elected.
Basically, the result of the Bundestag elections is determined by the principle of proportional representation as the number of constituency seats obtained by any party in a Land through the first votes is subtracted from the number of seats to be allocated to that party in the given Land due to the share of second votes it has obtained at federal level. Should a party win excess mandates, the regulations for Bundestag elections include exceptions to the principle that the second vote is the one determining the distribution of seats in the Bundestag. In those cases, the party concerned will keep all constituency seats, which means that the first vote, too, has some influence on determining the relative strengths of the parties represented in the Bundestag.
There will be excess mandates whenever a party has obtained more constituency seats in a specific Land than Land list seats would be allocated to that party on the basis of the second votes it has won in that Land. The party will then keep the constituency seats it has obtained directly, and the total number of seats in the German Bundestag will be increased by the number of excess mandates.
There are manifold reasons why there may be excess mandates, and their impact may vary between the Länder. Vote splitting as mentioned above may be one of the causes of excess mandates. In the past, it was stressed more than once before Bundestag elections that vote splitting could be used by supporters of a party expected to be represented in the Bundestag in order to help another party overcome the 5 per cent threshold if they cast their second vote for that party. As there is a chance that there may be excess mandates, vote splitting is relevant for the election result from yet another aspect: Supporters of a party which has hardly any chance to obtain constituency seats may cast their first vote for another party, thus increasing that latter party's chance to get excess mandates.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de