Erstimme
In Germany there are two votes in each election. The “Erststime” to vote for a candidate and the second (the “Zweitstimme”) to vote for a party. The second is the more important as it sets most of the parliament.
I am not happy with the Erststimme it is used now (german). Most voters know the candites no better than from the campaign posters and so they simply vote for the candidate of their party. This may lead, as it happened in the last Bundestag election, to a large number of extra mandates in the parliament which influence the political result which has been dertermined by the Zweitstimme. Again in worst case this leads to problems to find room for all the elected politicians (german).
As long as the result of the Zweitstimme is not changed I would be happy with having the Erststimme. But then I would like to have the choice between all german politicians and not alone those who by chance happen to live in my district.
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Time April 9, 2010 at 4:32 pm
[...] once have made some simply thoughts myself about the importance of the first vote and asked myself what the voters are voting for. I think voters vote for points of view. This might [...]