There are four ballots for the 2020 municipal election in Bavaria, some of which are huge - we will explain to you how to make your crosses correctly.
- In the Bavarian local elections on March 15, 2020 , you will receive several ballots.
- You can influence the choice skilfully by means of "cumulate" and "variegation" .
- We explain the most important principles with our fictitious ballot paper and offer you a "cheat sheet" to print out.
- We send you the most important stories from your Merkur.de * region once a week in our free, local newsletter. Register and receive all information about the election on Monday morning at 6 a.m. On election evening, we will keep you up to date in our news tickers on local elections in Bavaria and local elections in Munich.
Update of March 16, 2020: In many cities, municipalities and counties, voters are called to participate in the run-off elections on March 29. The runoff is always necessary if no candidate has won over 50 percent of the votes in a district election or mayor election . The two candidates with the most votes compete again in the duel so that a final decision can be made. In relation to the ballot, this means that it will be easier than in the first ballot. The sometimes huge ballot papers for city councils, municipal councils and district councils do not have to be checked again.
Only a single cross is allowed on all ballot papers for the runoff vote. It is only a question of which candidate should be the mayor or district administrator. An important change in the electoral process only occurred in the short term. The runoff vote should only run as a postal vote. Opening of polling stations is no longer planned. All voters in affected communities should automatically receive mail so that they can fill out their ballot papers for the run-off vote at home.
Huge ballot paper for local elections in Bavaria: how to fill it out
Munich - In the local elections in Bavaria , the ballot papers are sometimes huge - because municipal bodies usually have many members. These are the city council , the municipal council and the district council .
Local election ballots in Bavaria: What do the different colors mean?
In the 2020 local elections in Bavaria, there will be between two and four ballots in different colors.
- Yellow : ballot paper for the election of the first mayor or mayor
- Light green : Ballot for the election of the municipal councilors / city councilors (depending on their place of residence)
- White : ballot paper for the election of the district councilors
- White: ballot paper for the election of the district committees (only in Munich)
- Light blue : ballot paper for the election of the district administrator
Ballot papers for the 2020 local elections in Bavaria: how many votes do I have?
How many votes you have to cast is on the top of your ballot paper. In principle, you have as many votes as there are mandates in the body to be elected. The seats in the district council in Bavaria depend on the size of the district.
The smallest district days have 50 seats, counties from 150,000 inhabitants have 70 seats. The size of the municipal and city councils also fluctuates strongly: only eight seats have the smallest municipal councils (in places with less than 1000 inhabitants), while the largest city councils are in Nuremberg (70 seats) and Munich (80 seats).
You have one vote :
- for the election of the first mayor or mayor
- for the election of the district administrator
Local election Bavaria 2020: Fictitious sample ballot paper
A special feature applies to communities with up to 3,000 inhabitants: Here there can be up to twice as many votes. If there is only one or no election proposal for the municipal council election, the voter has from the outset twice as many votes as municipal council members are to be elected. Sounds confusing, but it's basically simple.
As a general rule, the total number of votes that a voter may cast is on the voting slip. Voters can also provide information about this before voting.
Schexing chooses - The fictional location, known from the BR series, serves as an example for our explanation of the election.
© Munich Mercury
Ballot paper in the 2020 local elections in Bavaria: what is "accumulating" and "variegating"?
You can make it easy for yourself and just make a cross for a complete list - see point "C" on our fictitious ballot paper for the local elections in Bavaria. Then each candidate on this list receives one vote. Exceptions are the candidates you may have crossed out on the list.
You can also distribute your votes. If you particularly want to support a candidate, you can give him up to three votes. This is called accumulation or " heaping ". Among parties, it is unofficial “sport” to choose so-called heaping kings, i.e. candidates who are heaped up front.
You can also distribute your votes across various lists - in the example above, our voter opted for the “non-party Schexinger”, but he also sends Rosemarie Specht and Anni Hummel from the competing “Independent Citizens”.
Combination: It is also allowed to fully utilize the right to vote, i.e. to check the list, to pile up and to diversify. In an additional article we explain the most important things about accumulating and variegating.
Local election ballot: Can it expire?
Attention, you must pay attention to the total number of your crosses : for a district day with 70 seats, for example, only 70 votes are to be given. If you vote more, your ballot will be invalid. If you don't make fewer crosses - but then you give away votes.
On the other hand, this can also "save" you: if, for example, a candidate mistakenly gave four votes but the total number of crosses fell below, their ballot will remain valid in the 2020 municipal election in Bavaria.
Sample ballot papers for the local elections in Bavaria 2020 - our infographic
Cheat sheet municipal election Bavaria 2020
© Munich Mercury
For election day, we recommend you download and print out our cheat sheet for the Bavaria 2020 local elections as a PDF file.
All information and dates for the 2020 local elections in Bavaria can be found here. Results of the 2020 local elections in Bavaria will be available on Sunday, March 15, 2020 from merkur.de. In advance you will find detailed reports on candidates, lists and all current developments.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
frs
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Felix Hörhager