Constituency
A constituency or electoral district , called Wahlsprengel in Austria , is an organizational unit in political elections .
Conceptually, a distinction is made between the constituency in which the specific seats of the organ to be elected are already decided. Depending on the country, the constituency itself can be the smallest unit, or it can be made up of further constituencies and / or electoral districts.
Basics
For the specific, local implementation of elections and votes, the electoral area is divided into electoral districts or voting districts. While in many electoral systems an electoral district is the unit in which a member (in the case of multi-mandate constituencies, several members) is determined, the layout of the electoral districts has no influence on the result. These only serve to make the organizational process manageable and are intended, above all, to ensure proximity to the citizens and easy exercise of the right to vote in sparsely populated areas, as well as preventing overcrowded voting locations in cities.
Each electoral district is assigned a polling station and an electoral board (in Germany) or an electoral commission (in Austria), which is responsible for a lawful and undistorted voting process and correct counting (in the case of votes with the appropriate designations: voting district, voting place and voting board) .
National
Germany
The general rule for parliamentary elections in Germany is that there should not be more than 2500 eligible voters in an electoral district. Smaller communities usually form an electoral district, larger ones are split up, but no electoral district may be so small that it can be seen how individual voters have voted. Germany's smallest electoral district is Hallig Gröde with (at the last election) 12 eligible voters. In the 2017 Bundestag election there were around 73,500 ballot boxes and around 14,500 postal voting districts.
Local elections
In local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia , the cities are divided into electoral districts, in which a direct candidate from each party runs for election. Half of the councilors 'seats are elected by constituency candidates, the other half through the parties' reserve list. In contrast to the general election, a voter has only one vote with which he decides for a direct candidate and for a party's reserve list.
Ireland
Ireland's Electoral Districts (2014: 3441) also represent the statistical LAU-2 level (see NUTS: IE ).
Austria
For parliamentary elections in Austria, the relevant electoral commission should be busy, but not overwhelmed. Therefore, the electoral districts are each designed for parts of a municipality with a few hundred voters, although organizational considerations such as waiting times and accessibility of the polling station are also included.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glossary entry electoral district ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the website of the German Bundestag
- ↑ Bundeswahlleiter.de: Press release No. 18/17 of September 7, 2017
- ↑ → en: District electoral division
