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In Germany, the first vote (German language: Erststimme) is used to elect a Direct mandate in a constituency. In the federal states, the first vote is sometimes called the constituency vote or direct vote.
Although the first vote is not considered to be quite as influential as the Second vote, it does have important functions in the election. It is an opportunity for individuals to enter the German Bundestag without being nominated by a party on a state list (example: Hans-Christian Ströbele in the 2002 German federal election). The first vote also guarantees the representation of all regions in parliament, because the constituencies are divided in such a way that each constituency has approximately the same number of people entitled to vote. In a non-personalized proportional representation system without constituencies, this is not automatically the case.
The validity of the first vote remains unaffected by a possible invalidity of the second vote ( Section 39 , Paragraph 1 of the Federal Election Law).
In contrast to the second vote, the first vote does not directly determine the strength of a parliamentary group, but simply swaps a candidate from the state list for the current constituency candidate. If more candidates from a party are elected to parliament through the first vote than the party is entitled to in percentage terms through the second votes, additional mandates are created, the Overhang seat. Leveling seat have been in place since 2013 to ensure a proportional distribution of seats.
In all state elections with first vote, there are compensatory mandates for Leveling seat. In several states, however, the compensation is capped, so that Proporz can arise.
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