Voting Process in Germany VS U.S.

The election of the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the State Elections were held this year. I was excited to experience the election process in the U.S.. Since both, Germany, and the U.S. are democratic countries, the voting process I observed was quite familiar to me.

First of all I would like to give a short summary of how the German political system is compounded. The ‘Bundestag’, which is the parliament of the ‘Bundesrepublik Deutschland’, based in Berlin, is directly elected by the nation and is held every four years. The ‘Bundespräsident’ and the ‘Bundeskanzler’ are elected secretly by the German assembly of the ‘Bundestag’. The candidates need to have the absolute majority. The election on the ‘Bundespräsident’ is held every 5 years, whereas the ‘Bundeskanzler’ is elected every 4 yours. The ‘Bundesrat’, which represents the different German regions, is also elected by the ‘Bundestag’. So the only entity which is directly elected by the nation is the ‘Bundestag’ (below you can see a picture of the different German parties, which can be voted). The exact date of the election is chosen by the ‘Bundespräsident’ and must be a Sunday or public holiday. Everybody over the age of 18 who has resided for at least 3 months in Germany is eligible to vote. The elections are held in the city halls of every town and little villages.

The election process in the U.S. is a very important event as well as in Germany. Posters of the different parties will be seen all over town and commercials will be seen on TV and the internet. To come to the actual voting process now, the voters first have to register with their ID’s at the front desk, both in the U.S. and Germany. After that they have to sit down at a covered desk so nobody can see who they are voting. On the desk there is only one ballot and a pen. In the U.S. they will be brought to their respective ward and ballot, according to their region, where they will also have to go to a covered place to vote. The ballot in the U.S. will be inserted into a machine and the machine will count their vote automatically. In Germany however, the ballots will only be put in a big box but no one really knows how they are counted. After this the voting process is done.

In Germany there are many people that do not vote. Their voice will be used to support the more ‘weak’ parties of Germany. So by not voting, some people, unknowingly, give their voice to the less popular parties.