In the 2020 local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, voters will receive several ballot papers.
The number depends on the place of residence, whereby the filling out follows a clear pattern.
In the 2020 local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, voters will receive several ballot papers everywhere.
There is one important rule that voters must observe when filling out the form.
There is one more ballot paper in the Ruhr area than in the other regions of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Düsseldorf - The
2020 local elections will take place in NRW
on September 13th
.
Voters can vote on different political offices, but not every voter receives the same number of ballots.
Local election 2020 in NRW: How many ballot papers are there?
The number of ballot papers differs depending on where you live.
In the municipal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, every voter receives a ballot for the
mayoral election
in their own city or municipality.
Anyone eligible to vote may also decide
on the local
council
or
city council
on election day.
In addition, there are more pronounced differences between urban and rural areas.
Anyone who is eligible to vote
and
lives outside urban
districts can
vote for
the
district administrator
and the
district council
.
There are two separate ballot papers for this.
In the cities there is instead the election of the
district council
.
Whoever lives in the Ruhr area, more precisely in the area of the Ruhr Regional Association, can
vote
for the representatives in the
Ruhr Parliament
on another ballot
paper
.
So there are up to five ballot papers on election day.
In some cases, surveys before the NRW local elections already reveal what the mood is like among the voters in individual cities.
Occasionally, voters can also ask a kind of Wahl-O-Mat for local elections in NRW before they make a decision - but only in a few cities.
How to fill in the voting form for the local election?
One thing is the same in all elections: the voter has
exactly one vote
on each ballot for the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia
.
It must be clearly recognizable for which nomination the vote was cast.
Next to each nomination there is a field in which the voter can place his
cross
.
This does not change anything if a voter votes by
postal
vote.
He always fills out the same ballot papers.
Incidentally, postal voting should not be mandatory, because the process of municipal elections in Corona times has not been significantly changed.
Sample for ballot papers for the 2020 local elections in NRW
Everything is easiest in elections for mayors and district administrators.
The candidates are listed one below the other, and the voter can place a cross next to one of the names.
Candidates are also listed at the city or municipal level, but in this case they are the electoral district applicants.
They are mentioned in connection with what is known as the “
party's
reserve list
”.
The voter gives his cross to a candidate in connection with his party.
The voting slip at the district representatives in the cities looks a little different.
Here the lists of the parties are put up for election directly.
In the election of the Ruhr Parliament, the voter ticks such a list.
The city of Duisburg, for example, provided
some
samples of
the ballot papers before the election.
Here you can see the samples:
Ballot for the local council / district council
Ballot for the district council
Ballot for the Ruhr Parliament
Many people already know it in federal and state elections: the @wahlomat.
Two cities from North Rhine-Westphalia now want to offer a so-called Lokal-O-Mat for the # Kommunalwahl2020 in September.
Interesting!
🗳https: //t.co/izQ9HElY1O
- More Democracy NRW (@mehr_demokratie) June 3, 2020
Local election 2020 in NRW: When is a voting slip invalid?
A voting slip is also
always invalid
in local elections in
North Rhine-Westphalia
if a voter makes too many crosses on it.
More than one cross per ballot is not permitted.
It must also be clearly visible which
nomination was marked
on the voting slip.
If the cross was positioned in an unclear place, the vote must be sorted out during the counting.
For example, any ballot paper on which the voter enters his name is also invalid.
For the voter this means in a nutshell: In principle, you should not make any other lettering other than the cross.
Use the column provided for your cross on the voting slip.
You can always find out where you can find your polling station on the voting notification for the NRW election.
You will also find the most important information there at any time for applications for postal voting.
Who is on the ballot?
Overview for the largest cities
Before the election day,
merkur.de
offers you
an overview of the OB candidates in various major cities in North Rhine-Westphalia:
Mayoral candidate in Cologne
Candidate for mayor in Düsseldorf
Mayoral candidate in Dortmund
Mayoral candidates in Essen
Mayoral candidate in Duisburg
Mayoral candidate in Bochum
Mayoral candidate in Wuppertal
Candidate for mayor in Bielefeld
Mayoral candidate in Bonn
Candidates for mayor in Münster
You can find out even more details in the respective overview of all elections in the individual cities. This is how you find out what is available for election from the mayor to the city council. You can find all information on
merkur.de
for the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Bochum, Wuppertal, Bielefeld and Münster. You will also find the results of the mayoral elections and the election for the Ruhr Parliament.