Here are a couple of shots of a ballot paper for the local elections in Fürth.
There is a pink one with six fields – sorry about the varying pinks, but it was dark in there – and a yellow one with six potential mayors. You can see a corner of the yellow one in the bottom picture, but it was not very exciting.
As for the pink one, there is no information available in writing on how to fill it in. I had forgotten, so I was sent to a helper, who informed me rather superficially.
I can simply choose one party, putting a cross at the top. That seems to include one vote for each of the 50 (I think) names under that party (Die Linke has fewer candidates). But if I put a the figure 3 by a particular name, my votes go to that name first, even if it’s in another party, and they’re deducted from the main party I chose. (Actually, 3 is not the minimum – presumably 1 is the minimum – but they didn’t tell me that). I asked where I could read about it and I was told in the paper – but I missed that date – or on the Internet, but where on the Internet? No answer forthcoming.
This is not an invitation for an explanation – I’ve had it again and again. Kumulieren means giving one candidate up to three votes, and panaschieren means favouring more than one party, which I can reveal I did.
Only after coming home did I discover this explanation (in German) and this test ballot paper.
Oh good grief! Can you imagine if we’d had ballot papers like this at last year’s Scottish Parliament elections!