Munich voter notifications have been sent out

Munich, well in fact all of Bavaria, goes to the polls on Sunday 2nd march to elect new mayors and councils.
All resident EU citizens of longer than 3 months residence are entitled to vote.

The notification should be in your letterbox now or within the next few days as they have you on "ze files". If not, get onto the "Wahlamt" at your local council.
In Munich, that's the lovely people at the KVR.

Voting is between 0800 and 1800 on 02-03-08, usually at a local school or community centre, the venue is printed on your notification.
If you don't want to vote in person, you can get a postal vote, details of how to get it are on the paper you will be sent.

Happy voting!

Mine arrived on Tuesday and I shall try to remember to go. All I've got to do is try and remember how the system works as it's somewhat more complicated than in Britain. One man, 33 votes!

I thought it was 80 votes in Munich.

Well I don't actually live in Munich, but it was just a number I plucked out of the air!

I got mine.

Munich is 80 votes for the council, one vote for Lord Mayor, various number (roughly 20) for your local ward committee.

If you put ONE cross at the top of the list, your 80 votes get given to the candidates in the order they appear on the lists
ie as the party decided to stand.

If you have an aversion to any candidates on a party list (bad hair do, whatever) you can cross their name out and they get less.
If you have an attraction to any candidate on a party list ( eg known to be good good shag ) you can bump them up by writing a number 2 or 3 next to their name.

You can also give the odd vote to another candidate on another list by writing a number 2 or 3 (votes) next to their name(s).

You can totally vote cross party by not making any cross at the top but just writing numbers 1, 2, 3, next to the candidates you like.

But if you write numbers, whether crossing at the top for a list or not, you must NOT write a total greater than the total number of seats (Munich = 80) or your whole vote is invalid, as it is also if you make more than one cross for a party list.

Alles klar oder?

After getting my notification in the mail I went to http://www.muenchen.de/wahl08 and asked for a postal vote (Der Wahlschein und die Briefwahlunterlagen können auch online beantragt werden.). That way I can work out what to cross at my leisure instead of standing in the polling booth wondering what to do.

Silly post i know and totally open to manipulation but MT, do you know which people/parties are furriner friendly?

I just had a look at the candidates at:

http://www.muenchen.de/cms/prod1/mde/_de/r...r_wahl_2008.pdf

I'd say that the occurance of obviously non germanic names fairly high up each list is a fair indicator of the parties comitment to furriner issues oder?

Fook me!

29 pages of the buggers?

Als mud.

One question: After reading the finite elements of your explanation, MT, and coming up confuddled, I am wondering if I am even elligible to vote at all. I mean, I haven't done a course or got a license from the KVR in Poxy Strasse.

There's something like 10 parties and 80 candidates per party so it's BIG.
Bearing in mind even the two largest parties are only going to get around 30 seats each, its the names at the top that count.
It's all very well putting a furren on plasce 80 cos they won't gt in.
Putting a furren on a top 10 position is a clear statement.

Sin, check your post tomorrow. Poxy strasse have said they should ALL be out by now.

No, I've got my voting slip and the little yellow handout and I've been onto the website and I'm still Mr. None The Bloody Wiser.

What the fuck is a furren?

A furren is like a bloody cockney in Manchester mate.

Oh, except the ones that come to our place every other week to watch the Red Sox.

Rissoles, mate. May your driveway be blocked by a thousand balloons (preferably light blue in colour) and may you be blind dated with the sole remaining virgin in Manchester (think about it).

I have it now. I (we... Mme Sin was assisting) dug about in the Munich.de website and found this and a link to try a dummy run here first.

When you've got the form up notice how you can check the circular box at the top of a party, and in the case of the CSU and SPD, etc. each of the candidates gets a single point.

However, note how the iffy parties (and I'm talking well iffier than the CSU... meaning THAT iffy) have a devious scheme to ensure the first to the twenty-seventh candidates, and most important if there are only 20 or so seats up for grabs, lump the votes. Pure cunning, and I'm stunned the Germans are allowed to get away with this.

If Mme Sin has explained it so I've actually understood it now, it's actually better to vote for the Greens (as an example) giving 3 votes each to the first 26 candidates and 2 to the 27th and the rest get none.

Is this right?

Jesus!

I've not even checked mine yet, is it really that difficult?

I think you have to think like a German to be able to be rigid enough to fill out the form. I don't have any choice. Mme Sin has already warned me that democracy is painful... and even more painful if I don't go and vote. There's just got to be something wrong about fretting about a piece of paper and all the various conotations and you spend time and effort trying to work it all out so that when you finally get there and you've got the pencil in your hand you don't fucking know anymore who you wanted to vote for in the first place and you're scared of electing in The Dodgy Moustache and Killing Anybody Without Blonde Hair Partei and to cap it all the whole thing is ninety-nine point nine-nine percent certain to end up with you spoiling the bleedin' ballot paper anyway.

If you see what I mean.

Yup, i got it.

Her indoors will cut you off if you don't vote and you might as well cut your own off if you get it wrong.

Beautiful dilemna.

You can elect the councillors with just one cross at the top for a party list if you are broadly in line with that parties polcies and don#t have any particular like or dislike of a specific candidate.

I don't think so MT. I think I'm going to choose my party of preference and give the first 26 on the list 3 each and the 27th 2 votes. I got it all sussed now.

Your choice mate. I'm giving extra votes to candidates I've shagged!

Seriously though. Within the parties you might think "Oh she's good on issue X that I'm really interested in" so give them extra votes while someone else you think looked rubbish in the interview they gave in the paper etc so you cross them out.

The order of the candidates on the list is how the party has decided to place them after their own internal wranglings.
Might not be your personal choice.

Easy then. I shall be voting for the candidates with the biggest tits.

Where do I pick up the material that will help me make my decisions on the day?

With this modern internetz thingamajig all the parties will have their leading candidates pics online innit?

Woo-Hoo! Political porn!

I'm gonna give this a miss, voting was easy back home with a few candidates, this is bloody nonsense .

It's Bavaria's electoral law that specifies a Gemeinde must singly elect a whole council that makes it such an issue, becasue Munich is SO big.
It is is the largest single local authority in Germany.
And becasue it has so many council seats and PR, you can get a council seat fairly easy as you can garner votes city wide.
This benefits (say) the Rosa Liste which would find it hard to operate in other major cities.
So more parties stand.