Election

An election in the sense of political science is a procedure in states, territorial authorities and organizations for the appointment of a representative person or several persons as a decision-making or ruling body. Elections can produce members of parliament (e.g. in state and federal elections), district, city and municipal councils (in local elections), presidents and heads of government, executive boards, supervisory boards, works councils and the like. These office or mandate holders obtain their legitimacy by a group of people expressing their will in a pre-determined procedure. The sum of the individual decisions leads to the overall decision represented in the election result.

The persons entitled to vote (eligible voters) elect an office or mandate holder or a body for a fixed period of time in a fixed procedure (electoral system) - usually from a selection.

A distinction must be made between egalitarian and functional representative systems: Egalitarian means that all eligible voters are treated equally; functional is an election in which representatives of different status groups elect their representatives in separate ballots (e.g. election of representatives of shareholders, executives and other personnel in the election of supervisory boards). In political elections, the only permissible measure for dividing the electorate is to assign each voter to a particular constituency and therein to a voting district; otherwise, as in all egalitarian representative systems, the principle is: "One person, one vote."

An electoral event has more tasks than the selection of personnel. It politicizes and mobilizes voters; it also legitimizes the political system. Even dictatorships hold elections to create the appearance of legitimacy, although the selection of political personnel in dictatorships is usually made in advance. The election of the German Federal President is an example of how this is possible in principle even in correct democracies, since the majority ratios in the Federal Assembly are usually known in advance.

Tasks of political elections

The main task of political elections in a representative democracy is the appointment of organs. The organ can consist of several persons, for example the members of a parliament. Other organs consist of only one person, for example a president.

For an election, eligible people are usually pre-determined or pre-selected to keep the cost of the election down. This is called the nomination of candidates. In this process, the composition of the body to be elected can be influenced.

The expression of the will of individuals in a vote is called a vote. There are numerous electoral systems with regard to the concrete formulation of votes and their aggregation to the overall decision. The basic types of electoral systems are proportional representation and majority voting.

Political elections are subject to a series of requirements that have proven to be absolutely necessary in order to actually bring about the desired balance of interests through elections. They are sometimes extended by optional requirements that arise from special interests.

In Germany, political elections fulfil the following functions:

• Produce a parliament capable of action and decision-making;
• Legitimacy of parliaments and any governments they elect, as well as of councils and mayors and district councils;
• Voter control of parties, MPs and governments;
• Representation of voter interest (competitive theory);
• Integration of the population into politics;
• Competition of personnel and programmatic alternatives;
• Integration of political forces with inclusion of all weighty concerns among the people.

Political election requirements

In the following consideration, aspects of the design of the electoral options and the mathematical evaluation of the votes are excluded. There are extensive treatises on how the will of the electorate can be represented by such electoral systems and according to what criteria, and what of these might be most suitable for a society. This forms a whole science of its own, and depends in part purely on subjective views on these matters. In particular, there is evidence that above a certain complexity of these "will representations", no electoral system can exist that satisfies all reasonable requirements for representation functions at the same time.

Necessary requirements

A number of requirements for elections necessarily follow:

• from the aim of achieving a balance of interests, and
• from the possibilities of affecting it.

To this end, a political election must meet the following requirements:

• Eligibility: Only those persons who are eligible to vote may cast votes.
• Equality: Each voter may vote only once and with equal weight of votes. (Contrast: class suffrage)
• Privacy: No one can determine which vote a voter cast.
• Anti-counterfeiting:
• Valid votes may not be changed (falsified).
• Valid votes may not be destroyed.
• No votes may be added, and in particular no valid votes may be made from invalid votes.
• Verifiability: Each voter has the opportunity to verify, independently of any other person, the correctness of the election, including all the previously mentioned points.

The claims are justified by the following circumstances:

• Entitlement: The balancing of interests does not work if exactly those persons do not vote who are defined as affected by the aim of the election and as sufficiently mature. The definitional authority in this matter lies with the (constitutional) legislator in political elections. The relevant definitions are laid down in constitutions and laws.
• Equality: The balance of interests does not work if voters can change the weight of their vote at will. For recognition as "democratic", all votes must have approximately equal weight.
• Privacy (Secret): The balance of interests does not work when votes are bought or extorted. Bribery and extortion are significantly hindered when it is made impossible to determine which vote a voter cast.
• Falsification security: The balance of interests does not work if the set of votes to be counted is falsified in any way (by changing, adding or destroying votes) after they have been cast.
• Verifiability: Any of the above requirements may be violated by any person. Specifically, any person who is entrusted with enforcing compliance with the above requirements can violate them. A real security against electoral fraud of all kinds arises only and exactly by the fact that all voters receive the right to check the compliance with the requirements.

Conflicts of objectives may arise between the various requirements of an election: If, for example, the goal of the general public is striven for, one may not exclude sick or disabled people from voting who can only communicate their will verbally, even though this means a violation of the secrecy of the ballot. There should only be an exclusion of the right to vote if persons under care, for whom care has been set up with the three classic areas of responsibility and possibly beyond, can no longer tell an election official which party they want to vote for.

Also, not all demands can be consistently met: Constituency cuts that would result in exactly the same number of voters in each constituency would lead to acceptance problems; moreover, because of the different demographic trends in the regions, constituencies would have to be re-cut for each election. In the case of postal votes, one must be able to rely on the affirmation that the eligible voter has cast the vote(s) himself, as well as on corresponding threats of punishment.

An attempt shall be made to satisfy the principle of verifiability by

• the election is organised and managed by individual representatives (so-called election workers), but all interested voters and, if necessary, election observers are allowed to inspect the work of the representatives;
• the critical acts of voting - verifying eligibility and validity and collecting and counting votes - are conducted in public, with any interested person permitted to participate or inspect;
• if there are reasonable grounds for suspicion, a detailed check for violations does indeed take place (however, the appeal of individual voters among thousands is usually rejected).

Additional requirement

An additional demand on political elections that arises from the historically evolved understanding of justice is the

• Generality: Any person belonging to an organisational unit whose representatives are elected is entitled to vote. Eligibility may not be restricted depending on the person's interests in relation to a number of fundamental freedoms.

What is concretely counted among the fundamental freedoms of individuals is highly dependent on the historical development and the organisation concerned, and is still subject to strong regional variations today.

Redundant formulations

Some historical formulations are compelling consequences of the necessary demands:

• Freedom: Every voter can cast his vote himself without having to do this via third parties. The content of the vote is not monitored. The casting of a valid vote is not enforced (even in the case of compulsory voting as in Belgium). This requirement results from the requirements of privacy and security against forgery: security against forgery and privacy both enforce the right to cast the vote independently.
• Direct election: In a personal election, the vote is given directly to a candidate. The candidate does not have the right to give away his votes further according to his taste. This requirement stems from the demand for security against forgery: without the prohibition of vote trading, it is not possible to prevent a person's vote from being converted against his or her will. Also, as a rule, votes must be cast in person, mostly by each eligible voter making his or her own cross or crosses on an official ballot paper. "Assistance" in doing so is permitted only to a very limited extent and only in the case of disabled or ill persons.
  Elections by electoral college are an exceptional case.
• Transparency: The process of voting can be followed by the public - except for the determination of the content of a voter's vote. This is a necessary element of the demand for verifiability: If a process cannot be seen and understood, it can at most be examined at its outer endpoints (what goes in and what comes out). Of these, however, it is precisely the voices going in that should necessarily not be known (privacy).

Electoral principles

Generality of choice

The right to vote is universal if it is in principle available to all citizens who have reached voting age, without making eligibility dependent on conditions that not every citizen of voting age can meet (e.g. gender, certain population or occupational groups). However, it should be noted that, as a rule, exclusion from the right to vote is possible under certain conditions (usually on the basis of a criminal conviction) (in Austria, for example, under Article 26(5) B-VG in conjunction with Section 22 NRWO, see point 1 above).

Immediacy of the choice

In a direct election, the distribution of seats results directly from the election result (apart from non-acceptance, later resignation or similar actions by the elected themselves). A downstream stage (following the election), such as the electoral college in presidential elections in the USA, is not compatible with a direct election. In contrast, a stage upstream of the election, such as the drawing up of electoral lists by the parties, is compatible with direct elections. The immediate election is also called direct election.

freedom of choice

Elections are free if there is no interference by third parties in the drawing up of election proposals, in election advertising or in the exercise of the right to vote or stand for election. There must be the possibility to choose freely from several candidates or parties, also the nomination of candidates must be free.

Equality of choice

The equality of the right to vote means that every valid vote has the same voting weight and no circumstances, such as marital status, higher education, higher tax performance, etc., may be used for a higher weighting of the votes. This is called equal counting value of all votes in the voting process. However, it is common practice that not all votes must also have the same success value; this refers to the votes required for a mandate. For example, in the 2002 election to the Austrian National Council, 25,978 votes were required for the SPÖ to win a mandate, but the ÖVP needed 26,289 votes to win a mandate. Such distortions result from the design of the seat allocation procedure.

Another point in the evaluation of the election result is the so-called weighted result.

Secrecy of the ballot

Elections are secret if the voter has to fill in his ballot paper himself, unobserved and uninfluenced, in a polling booth (or, as in the case of a postal vote, in another place) and put it folded into the ballot box. It must not be possible to determine how the individual citizen voted. The polling officer at the polling place shall ensure that all voters use the voting booth. Folding the ballot paper has replaced putting it in an envelope, except for absentee voting, to simplify counting (amendment to the Federal Election Act). The secret ballot is not only intended to protect the voter from undesired influence on the formation of his or her will in the course of the electoral process, it is also intended to relieve him or her of the worry and fear that he or she will be exposed to reproaches and disadvantages of whatever kind because of his or her vote in a certain direction.

Transparency or publicity of the election

Another principle is the transparency or publicity of the electoral process. It means that the path of the voters' votes is fully traceable, from the cast ballots to the counting to the formation of totals and the calculation of a possible allocation of seats. This also means that the observation of the way of the ballot box is completely possible (so that a filling of the ballot box before the beginning of the election and an exchange of the ballot box against another one can be excluded) and that every sum of votes for a party (or a candidate) results in the sum of all subtotals, thus on the chain of the calculations from the polling station up to the possible allocation of seats every partial calculation is comprehensible, this chain has no gaps. Election fraud is often carried out by means of a missing link in such a chain.

In Germany, this transparency is established by the publicity of the electoral act, which allows anyone to observe the election (§ 10 and § 31 BWahlG). In its ruling on voting computers, the previously unwritten principle of the publicity of the election was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court.

In Austria, the parties admitted to the election can send two election witnesses to each polling station in order to establish transparency in representation of the public (§ 61 NRWO). All member states of the OSCE have committed themselves to the transparent conduct of elections in a Copenhagen Declaration of 1990.

Choice effectiveness

Electoral effectiveness (also called the principle of effectiveness) refers to the condition that the elected parties and offices can actually perform their duties. This means that they can fulfil their tasks and obligations independently of other institutions (e.g. ministerial bureaucracy or lobbying), that they are not subject to manipulation and that they achieve an effective effect in their respective areas of responsibility. This is another unwritten principle, which in Germany, for example, is derived from Article 38 I GG and Article 20 I and II GG, which lay down the state's objectives and the sovereignty of the people in representative democracy. Furthermore, it links (analogously) to the legitimation chain theory, according to which all sovereign and non-sovereign legitimated action can be traced back to the expression of the will of the people in the election.

Different electoral systems

Germany

The right to vote is enshrined in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (GG).

Art. 20 para. 2 GG:

All state power shall emanate from the people. It shall be exercised by the people in elections and referenda and by special organs of legislation, executive power and the administration of justice.

Art. 38 para. 1 GG:

The Members of the German Bundestag shall be elected by universal, direct, free, equal and secret suffrage. They are representatives of the whole people, not bound by orders or instructions and subject only to their conscience.

Although Art. 38 GG lays down the electoral principles, it leaves open the details of the electoral law, in particular also the question of the electoral system (proportional representation or majority voting). The details of the procedure for the Bundestag elections are regulated in the Federal Election Act (Bundeswahlgesetz, BWahlG). Accordingly, the citizens of the Federal Republic elect their members of the Bundestag according to an electoral system that combines proportional representation and majority voting in the so-called personalized proportional representation. For this purpose, each voter can cast two votes.

Half of the 598 seats in the Bundestag are allocated by majority vote in 299 constituencies. Citizens vote for a direct candidate in the constituency with their first vote. In the constituency only one mandate is assigned. This is won by the candidate who can unite the most votes with a relative majority.

At the same time, citizens vote for the state list of a particular party with their second vote - the so-called chancellor's vote. The result of the second votes cast nationwide basically determines the strength ratio of the parties in the Bundestag. However, only those parties that have cleared the five-percent hurdle are taken into account in the allocation of seats.

In addition, due to a low turnout or a weak second vote result of a party with direct mandates (e.g. by splitting votes between first and second vote) in a Land, so-called overhang mandates can occur, which enlarge the Bundestag beyond the number of 598 MPs. These come about if more direct candidates of a party in a Land get into the Bundestag with the first vote than this party would be entitled to mandates proportionately via the second votes for the respective Land list. For example, after its election in 2005, the 16th German Bundestag had a total of 614 members due to 16 overhang mandates.

However, in July 2008 the Federal Constitutional Court declared the existing electoral law for the Bundestag unconstitutional ("negative weighting of votes") and gave the legislature until mid-2011 at the latest to rewrite it.

Electoral fraud is a criminal offence under the German Criminal Code. Section 107a of the German Criminal Code states: "Whoever votes without authorization or otherwise causes an incorrect result of an election or falsifies the result shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years or a fine."

Austria

The right to vote in Austria has its constitutional basis in Article 1 ("Austria is a democratic republic. Its law emanates from the people.") and Article 26 (1) B-VG ("The National Council is elected by the Federal People on the basis of the equal, direct, personal, free and secret right to vote of men and women [...] according to the principles of proportional representation."The fact that this is a fundamental right is beyond question, not least on the basis of Article 3, 1st CP to the ECHR, Article 138/1/2 of the EC Treaty and Article 8b of the EC Treaty.

According to Art. 95 and Art. 117 of the Federal Constitution, the principles of electoral law laid down in Art. 26 of the Federal Constitution also apply to elections to the Landtag and municipal councils.

An election (and thus also the violation of the principles of electoral law) can be challenged before the Constitutional Court on the grounds of alleged illegality.

Sweden

The right to vote in elections to the Swedish Parliament is governed by Regeringsformen, one of Sweden's four basic laws. According to this, the right to vote is granted to all Swedish citizens who reach the age of 18 at the latest on election day and who reside or have resided in Sweden. The Swedish Parliament always has 349 members, so there are no overhang mandates.

The right to vote in municipal and provincial elections is regulated by the Municipalities Act (Kommunallag, SFS 1991:900). According to this, the following persons are entitled to vote: Swedish citizens as well as citizens of another EU country, and also citizens of other countries who have resided in Sweden for at least three years. The age limit of 18 years on election day also applies in municipal and state elections.

The detailed rules on elections can be found in the Elections Act (Vallag, SFS 2005:837, in force since 1 January 2006). According to this, general elections are held every four years on the third Sunday in September. (For the 2014 election, 14 September was nevertheless set, for the first time the second Sunday in September).

The government may order extraordinary elections.

The mandates in the Swedish Parliament are allocated according to the Sainte-Laguë procedure.

In the general election, the voter may also give a personal vote to a candidate of the party chosen. All candidates who receive at least eight percent of the total votes for the represented party in the respective constituency are ranked according to the number of person votes at the top of the list. This is done regardless of the original ranking of the list.

In contrast to the German electoral system, however, there are no first and second votes, so there is no splitting of votes.

USA

In the absence of a centralised civil register, citizens entitled to vote must register in the electoral roll before the election.

Electoral justice

As can already be seen from the comparison of majority voting and proportional representation, an election procedure can always produce results that are mathematically correct but do not necessarily accurately reflect the will of the voters.

The following example is contrived, but it illustrates the principal risks that electoral procedures bring with them in different ways: In a fictitious election, the majority voting system applies, the parliament has five members of parliament who are elected in five constituencies with 100 voters each. The candidates are provided by only two parties (A and B) and all eligible voters go to the polls. If party A wins narrowly by 51 votes in three constituencies and party B wins by 99 votes in two constituencies, then party B has 3*49+2*99= 345 votes or 69% of all votes. So here more than 2/3 of all voters are behind party B, nevertheless it got only two mandates out of five and with only 40% of the mandates in parliament it is not able to push through decisions for the majority of the voters. This phenomenon, called "bias", occurred in British House of Commons elections in 1951 and 1974 (February election), for example. Sometimes constituencies are even deliberately tailored to produce this effect (gerrymandering).

Conversely, certain electoral systems can result in more mandates being obtained with fewer votes (negative weighting of votes, judged unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court on 3 July 2008). In this case a party, which would be entitled to more direct mandates in Land A than mandates according to second votes, can lose a mandate in another Land if it receives more second votes in Land A and vice versa. This effect could be deliberately brought about in the 2005 Bundestag election during the by-election in one constituency.

Historical development

Elections occur in the most diverse forms of society and rule, all the way back to the oldest traditions and legends. The circle of those entitled to vote and the election procedures are very different. Of particular historical significance are elections in Greek democracy and the Roman Republic, as well as the development of differentiated electoral procedures (including acclamation, scutiny, lottery, conclave) in the medieval city states. That the majority principle applies in voting and elections is not a matter of course. In addition to confirmation by a majority (maioritas), which can only be meaningfully spoken of if the circle of those entitled to vote is clear, the ability/dignity (sanioritas) of those voting and of those elected must also be taken into account, as has been argued since antiquity right up to the present day. In the Middle Ages one had the idea of a unanimity (unanimitas) - ultimately guided by God. German law continued to operate for a long time with the fiction that the minority counts for nothing, but must join the majority or remain silent.

There are currently many different views on the legitimacy or recognition of elections on Earth. Some of these are accompanied by radically different views as to eligibility to participate in elections (although this is sometimes a secondary problem for the population).

The UN tried to lay a foundation for the community of nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 21).