The difference between first and second vote is that If the federal parliament or a state parliament is elected in Germany, then every citizen has the opportunity to cast two votes. The first and the second vote. Both have different meanings in the choice, but neither is less important than the other.
With the first vote, every citizen can elect a candidate directly to the federal or state parliament. This means that candidates can stand for election in each of the 299 constituencies in Germany. These are either candidate from a party or non-party candidates. A simple majority of votes in his constituency is sufficient for one of these candidates to move into a state parliament or the Bundestag.
With the first vote, you choose a candidate from your own constituency. This is to ensure that every region is represented in parliament. In Germany, there are a total of 299 constituencies in which about the same number of voters live. In total, the first vote brings 299 members to the Bundestag. Each party may nominate one candidate. But there are also non-party candidacies. Whoever receives the most votes in their own constituency wins a direct mandate and is thus allowed to move into the Bundestag – regardless of how many second votes their own party was able to unite. He or she gets a seat in parliament even if the party failed to pass the five percent hurdle due to the number of second votes.
The other vote that a voter can cast is the so-called second vote. With this, the voter can give his vote to a party. In other words, after the election, all second votes that were cast in the election will be added up and then evaluated as a percentage. Each party that was able to unite more than 5% of the votes then enters the federal or the respective state parliament. The number of seats it receives is based on the number of votes received.
Incidentally, the two voices are independent of each other. You can therefore easily give the first vote to a candidate from party A and vote for party B with the second vote.
The second vote decides on the majority in parliament. It thus determines how many of the total of at least 598 seats in the Bundestag a party is entitled to. Here, as a voter, unlike the first vote, you do not make a cross for a person, but for the so-called state list of a party. This list contains all candidates who are to move into the Bundestag in Berlin as members of the Bundestag for the respective party and the respective federal state.
The order of the candidates on the list is not random but selected precisely: They are sent to parliament depending on their ratio of second votes. Those who are at the top of the list accordingly have a higher chance of moving into the Bundestag. The more second votes a party receives, the more candidates enter parliament via the list.
A party needs more than 5 percent of the second vote in order to be taken into account in the distribution of the seats in the Bundestag. If at least three people from a party win a direct mandate, they can still get seats in parliament.
In summary: Half of the members of the Bundestag are elected by the first vote. The total number of seats that a party receives in the Bundestag is regulated by the second votes won.
In the case of federal elections, voters can put two crosses on the ballot paper.
The German Bundestag has 598 members by default (usually there are more due to overhang and equalization mandates). 299 members are direct mandates that are awarded the first vote. The remaining 299 mandates are occupied by the list of members of the parties. For example, if Party A had 48% of the vote and Party B 33%, followed by Party C with 19%, these parties would get 144 (A), 99 (B), and 57 (C) seats. This simple example also results in a total of 300 seats. In other words, one of the MPs already has an overhang mandate.
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