Electoral system

Each voter has two votes. The first vote elects the constituency candidate directly. It is marked on the left half of the ballot paper. The second vote, which is marked on the right half of the ballot paper, goes to the Land list of a party.

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Since the 2^nd Bundestag election in 1953, voters have had two votes: their first vote goes to a constituency candidate and their second vote to a Land list. The intention was to counteract the fragmentation of parties for historical reasons by not relying on proportional representation only. The principle of proportional representation is decisive for the composition of the German Bundestag under the combined system chosen which considers the direct seats won in the distribution process.

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The Land lists of parties are closed lists, as they are called, because the order of candidates is determined by the parties in elections and cannot be altered.

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The provisional result of the Bundestag election is determined by the electoral bodies immediately after polling and passed on to the electoral body on the next highest administrative level as rapidly as possible (as a first release).

First, the votes on the ballot papers are counted in the polling stations and results are determined for the polling districts. In that process, the electoral boards establish

• the number of persons entitled to vote,
• the number of voters,
• the number of valid and invalid first votes,
• the number of valid and invalid second votes,
• the number of valid first votes cast for each candidate, and
• the number of valid second votes cast for each Land list.

As soon as the election result has been established for a polling district, the electoral officer announces the election result together with the above information and reports it to the municipal authority, which compiles the results of all its polling districts and submits them to the constituency returning officer.

The constituency returning officer determines the provisional election result for the constituency on the basis of the municipalities’ first releases and reports it to the Land returning officer as quickly as possible (including the postal ballot results). The name of the candidate elected according to the provisional result is also given.

The Land returning officer instantly communicates incoming constituency results to the Federal Returning Officer. In addition, the Land returning officer determines the provisional figures for the Land from the first releases of the constituency returning officers and also submits them to the Federal Returning Officer as quickly as possible.

In accordance with the legal provisions applying, the Federal Returning Officer determines the provisional election result for the entire electoral area from the first releases of the Land returning officers.

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The member of the electoral board responsible for taking the minutes draws up an election record of the poll and the process of determining and establishing the election result. All steps of the counting procedure up to the establishment of the election result are minuted in the election record following a specific pattern (see Annex 29 of the Federal Electoral Regulations). The record has to be approved and signed by the members of the electoral board. Then each electoral officer has to hand over the record with its annexes to the municipal authority. The latter, in turn, submits the election records of its electoral boards to the constituency returning officer by the quickest means.

The constituency returning officer checks the election records of the electoral boards for completeness and due form. The results are presented to the constituency electoral committee. The committee then determines the election result for the constituency and establishes

• the number of persons entitled to vote,
• the number of voters,
• the number of valid and invalid first and second votes,
• the number of valid first votes cast for each candidate,
• the number of valid second votes cast for each Land list.

The constituency electoral committee may correct results established by the electoral board, for example by deciding differently as to the validity of individual votes cast. Finally, the committee establishes which candidate has been elected in the constituency and announces these results by word of mouth.

Minutes have to be kept also of the constituency electoral committees’ meeting. They have to be signed by all involved. These minutes are submitted to the Land returning officer and the Federal Returning Officer as rapidly as possible together with a compilation of the election results which follows a specific pattern (Annex 30 of the Federal Electoral Regulations).

The Land returning officer examines the election records of the constituency electoral committees. Then the final election results for the various constituencies are compiled and submitted to the Land electoral committee. The Land electoral committee determines the Land result on the basis of second votes cast and establishes

• the number of persons entitled to vote,
• the number of voters,
• the number of valid and invalid second votes,
• the number of valid second votes cast for each Land list,
• in cases where Section 6 (1), second sentence, of the Federal Elections Act applies, the number of second votes cast for each Land list which have to be considered when the seats are distributed (adjusted numbers).

The Land electoral committee corrects the results established by the electoral boards or constituency electoral committees, if necessary. The documents are submitted to the Federal Returning Officer together with the minutes of the meeting in accordance with Annex 33 of the Federal Electoral Regulations.

The Federal Returning Officer reviews the election records of the Land electoral committees. On this basis he determines

• the number of second votes cast for the Land lists of each party,
• the total number of valid second votes cast in the electoral area,
• the votes cast for each party as a percentage of the total number of valid second votes cast in the electoral area,
• the number of constituency seats won by each party in the electoral area,
• the adjusted number of second votes cast for the Land lists and each party,
• the number of successful constituency candidates which is to be deducted from the total number of deputies pursuant to Section 6 (1), third sentence, of the Federal Elections Act,
• the number of seats to be assigned to each Land in stage one of the distribution process on the basis of the latest official population figures.

After the Federal Returning Officer has reported, the Federal Electoral Committee determines the overall result of the Land list election and establishes, for the entire electoral area,

• the number of persons entitled to vote,
• the number of voters,
• the number of valid and invalid second votes,
• the number of valid second votes going to each party,
• the parties which, pursuant to Section 6 (3) of the Federal Elections Act,
  • are considered in the distribution of list seats,
  • are disregarded in the distribution of list seats,
• the adjusted number of second votes going to each party,
• the number of seats going to each party and Land list,
• which Land list candidates have been elected.

The Federal Returning Officer may correct the results established by the Land electoral committees.

As soon as all electoral committees have established their results, the constituency returning officers publicly announce the final result for their constituency, the Land returning officers announce the result for their Land and the Federal Returning Officer for the entire electoral area.

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The seats are distributed according to the Sainte-Laguë/Schepers calculation procedure.

In this procedure, which is also called divisor method with standard rounding, the number of second votes cast for each party is divided by a common divisor. In line with standard practice, the resulting quotients are rounded to obtain numbers of seats, which means that the figure is rounded up or down respectively when the remaining fraction is larger or smaller than 0.5, and a lot is drawn if the residual equals 0.5 exactly. The divisor is determined in a way which ensures that the total of the seats equals the total of seats to be distributed.

Three different methods may be used for calculation which produce the same result:

• the highest average method,
• the rank order statistics procedure and
• the iterative procedure.

When a procedure was introduced for allocating the seats, the legislator decided in favour of the iterative procedure. In 2009 it was used in Bundestag elections for the first time.

With the iterative method, an approximate allocation is calculated in a first step. This is done, for example, by dividing the total number of votes to be considered by the total number of seats to be distributed, thus determining a provisional divisor for allocation. Any remaining discrepancies are reduced in the following steps by increasing or reducing the divisor until the final allocation has been found where the distribution of seats corresponds with the number of seats to be distributed.

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A party’s number of seats is determined by the number of valid second votes cast for that party. As a rule, all parties are considered which have won at least 5 percent of all valid second votes cast in Germany or a minimum of three constituencies.

The valid votes cast are converted into seats in several steps. The procedure ensures that the number of seats determined for a Land list equals or exceeds the number of constituency seats of that party in the respective Land. The constituency seats won by first votes are deducted from the seats calculated on the basis of the Land list election.

1^st stage:

In a first step, the number of seats falling to a Land is determined in relation to its German population. In doing so, the following condition has to be met: there is a total of 598 seats to be distributed.

In a second step, the seats going to a Land are distributed among the parties in accordance with the number of second votes won by each party. In doing so, the following condition has to be met: the number of seats determined for each Land has to be adhered to.

Then the maximum number of seats going to a party is determined from the Länder seats calculated and the constituency seats won. A party’s total of seats in all Länder is the minimum number of seats guaranteed to that party at federal level.

2^nd stage:

In a first step, the minimum number of seats going to each party are added up. The resulting total number of seats is then distributed among the parties in accordance with their share of second votes. If a party does not receive the minimum number of seats it has been guaranteed in stage 1, the total number of seats has to be increased accordingly.

In a second step, the seats are allocated to the Land lists of the parties subject to the condition that at least the constituency seats won by a Land list will be guaranteed.

Compliance with these requirements usually leads to an increase in the number of Bundestag seats, which is 598.

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