How does voting work?
In the Munich local elections, I can vote every six years. Three times: for the Lord Mayor, the City Council and the District Committee for your city district. While the election of the Lord Mayor is very clear - simply tick a candidate - the election of the City Council and District Committees is somewhat more complicated. If I would rather do the voting in peace while drinking coffee - no problem! The ballot papers are also delivered directly to your home. Vote simply by absentee ballot.
How does voting work?
In the Munich local elections, I can vote every six years. Three times: for the Lord Mayor, the City Council and the District Committee for your city district. While the election of the Lord Mayor is very clear - simply tick a candidate - the election of the City Council and District Committees is somewhat more complicated. If I would rather do the voting in peace while drinking coffee - no problem! The ballot papers are also delivered directly to your home. Vote simply by absentee ballot.
Wie läuft die Wahl des Stadtrats?
The election of the Lord Mayor
Who do I vote for?
Each party (or voter grouping) may nominate one Lord Mayor candidate. Candidates must not be older than 66 years and must have German citizenship.
And how does that work now?
The Lord Mayor election is very clear in the right column the names and professions of the candidates are listed. In the left column, the party (or voter internal grouping) to which they belong. I'm only allowed to place one cross in this election.
Then what happens to my vote?
The absolute majority applies to the Lord Mayor election. This means that whoever wins more than half the votes wins the election. It happens often that no candidate reaches the absolute majority. Then there is a second ballot between the two candidates with the most votes. In the second ballot, everyone has to go to the ballot box again and this time they can only vote between these two candidates. Whoever gets the most votes then becomes Lord Mayor. If a second ballot is necessary, it shall take place exactly two weeks after the date of the local elections.
The election of the city council
The election of the city council is unfortunately somewhat more complicated. That's why there's a great wall newspaper to order here, where everything is explained in detail once again.
Who do I vote for?
At first glance, the ballot paper for the city council election is somewhat overtaxing. There are lots of columns with numbers and below them lots of names with even more numbers. The columns are the lists. Each party (or voter groups) draw up a list of candidates for election. Each list can have a maximum of 80 names. These are the list places or the candidates. They appear with their name and professional title. In other words, I cannot necessarily read on the ballot paper what the individual candidates are advocating. Therefore, it makes sense that I inform myself about the candidates and their program beforehand. Or at least about the parties (voter groups). So that I know what they actually have in mind for the next six years with Munich.
I and my 80 votes - quick check:
- I can put a cross on a list and I am done voting.
- I can place a cross on a list and remove candidates who do not suit me from that list.
- I can vote for individual candidates.
Also from different lists. - I can give a candidate up to three votes.
- I can set a list cross and additionally vote for candidates from other lists.
Not bad, huh?
Accu things and Pana-what?!
With the city council elections, I have the opportunity to vote not only for parties (or voter groups), but also for specific people. And not always the ones I like are in the same party (or voter groups). So, if I want to vote candidate X from list A and candidate Y from list D - then I can! Though those are in different parties (or voter groups). And that means panache.
And accumulate? That is, I would like as much of candidate X as possible. Then I can just give that person more than one vote. But the most three. I can write a 2 or 3 in the corresponding box instead of making a cross. Or put several crosses in the box. Then there are also people who are pre-accumulated, who are simply on the ballot paper several times. Or have several checkboxes next to their name. This is especially important when I set a list cross. Because that doesn't necessarily distribute my 80 votes evenly among the people on that list. But people who are pre-accumulated get more votes. Of course, if I don't want to, I can stop at any time
Extra wishes - no problem!
I can vote for a party (or voter groups) by a list cross. And in addition, I can directly mark (panache) candidates from other lists. If I find a person especially great, I can also put a cross for them several times. But maximum three times (cumulate). And if I think the party (or voter groups) is great, but I don't like candidate X of this list at all, then I can just delete it. That means just cross out the name.
Attention, invalid!
In general, the following applies: the voters will must be identifiable! This means that if I cast 300 votes all over the piece of paper, or simply cross all the lists, then I probably didn't think much of it. So: invalid. Unfortunately, this is also the case when I have carefully distributed my crosses to all my candidates* and then still miscounted myself...
There's no problem in giving too few votes. The ballot paper remains valid.
Then what happens to my vote?
The first thing to be clarified is how many seats a party gets. For this purpose, the percentage (of the total number of votes) a party has received is calculated. For example,
if a party has achieved 30% of the votes, it also gets 30% of the seats in the city council. 24 of them. The next step is to determine who from the party gets these seats. The individual votes are now important here. All votes that a person has received (whether through list crosses or direct crosses) are added together. And the ones with the most votes get the seat on the
city council. It is clear that candidates who have been heavily cumulated have a better chance of getting seats.
The election of your district committee
Vote for the district committee. Sure, just for your municipality. Depending on the size of your municipality, there are more or less seats on the district committee.
The principle in this election is the same as in the city council election. I get to vote a list, cumulate it, panache it or cross it out. Here, too, I am allowed to place as many crosses as there are seats.
