Election of the municipal council

The right to vote in municipal council elections in Baden-Württemberg is derived from the Basic Law of the Federal Republic (Articles 28, 116), the State Constitution of Baden-Württemberg (Article 72) and the Municipal Code of Baden-Württemberg (Section 12).

According to these, anyone who is German in the sense of the Basic Law or has the nationality of another member state of the European Union, who has reached the age of 16 and who has lived in the municipality for at least three months is entitled to vote in the municipal elections.

The municipal code distinguishes between residents and citizens of the municipality. The citizen of the municipality is entitled to political participation as a citizen of the municipality. The resident of the municipality, who merely resides there, may not exercise political rights.

In the election of the municipal council, every citizen has as many votes as there are seats to be distributed. In Stuttgart, voters can cast 60 votes. Usually, several parties or voter associations run with one list each.

There are several ways to cast your vote:

• List voting: A voter can tick a list, then all his or her votes go to that party or voters' association. Each candidate on that list receives one vote. It is also possible to cross off candidates on the corresponding list if one does not wish to vote for them.
• Panache: One can also vote for candidates from different parties or voter associations. Mixing candidates from different lists is known as variegating.
• Accumulate: If you want to give special support to a candidate, you can cast up to three votes. This "accumulation" of votes is called cumulating.
• Combination: It is also permitted to make full use of the right to vote. This means that voters can tick an entire list, split the remaining votes between candidates on other lists and give certain candidates more than one vote. Anyone who pancakes or heaps must in any case ensure that the total number of votes is not exceeded - otherwise their ballot paper is completely invalid.

The Sainte-Laguë method applies, which is a proportional representation method. This method is used to calculate the distribution of seats and to determine the allocation of seats in proportion to the strength of the individual parliamentary groups. This method has some advantages over, for example, the d'Hondt maximum number method, which favors the major parties.

Unlike elections to the Bundestag or the state parliament, there is no five-percent hurdle in local elections, the so-called blocking clause. This makes it easier for small parties or voter associations to get a seat.