When Germans go to their polling stations — in schools and other public buildings — they have two votes: One for a candidate to represent their constituency and the second for a party's state list, which usually lists between 10 and 30 candidates. The system is often referred to as "personalized proportional representation."

Two boxes to tick on the ballot

The first vote, for a direct candidate running in the respective electoral district, determines half of the parliament's total composition, ensuring that each district is represented.

The second vote determines the strength of the parties in the Lower House of Parliament, the Bundestag and thereby determines how many candidates from that state list will be granted seats in the Bundestag.

From 2025, the number of seats in parliament are limited to 630 seats. A reform to the election system was introduced in 2024, doing away with provisions that made the number of lawmakers balloon as the size of parties shrank. This reform was partially overturned by the top court. 

The electorate

Sixty-one million of Germany's 83 million population are eligible to vote. These are German nationals aged 18 and over. If they have lived in the country for at least the past three months, they can vote in Germany, German nationals who live abroad can vote in the German embassy of their country of residence.

The right to vote may be revoked by a court for individuals who committed certain political crimes — like espionage and disclosure of state secrets — but under no circumstances in the case of crimes such as murder, manslaughter and serious sexual abuse of children.

The same rules apply to the candidates, who are put forward by their respective parties.

Just over half of the electorate are women, almost 40% are age 60 and above, and 14% are younger than 30.

Voter turnout tends to be high in Germany, in the last two general elections it has been just over 76%.

The 5 percent threshold

Under German election law, parties must obtain a minimum of 5% of the party votes (second votes) to secure representation. The provision was first introduced in 1953 and was intended to prevent tiny splinter parties like those that plagued the Weimar Republic from entering into parliament and fragmenting it, making it hard to form a viable majority.

However, an exception is granted to parties that field winning candidates in at least three electoral districts: Winning three individual mandates lifts the five percent threshold for the respective party. In 2021, for example, this applied to the Left Party, which won only 4.9% of the second votes, but was allowed to fill 4.9% of the seats and send 39 lawmakers because three of their candidates won in their constituencies.

The second exception is for candidates representing a recognized German minority, like the Danish in Schleswig-Holstein or the Sorbs in Saxony. It takes between 35,000 and 38,000 votes to win a constituency, so that is the number of votes a representative of a minority party needs to garner to get a seat in the Bundestag. In 2021, Stefan Seidler, the representative of the Danish minority won 55,000 votes securing a seat in parliament.

Building a government and electing a chancellor

If a party gains 50 percent of the vote it would then effectively have representatives to push through its own agenda. But that is unlikely to happen. For that reason, parties in Germany usually need to partner with one or more parties in order to build a coalition with enough votes to control the Bundestag.

Traditionally, the candidate of the party gaining the most votes will become chancellor and the leading candidate of the junior coalition partner is often tapped to become foreign minister. The chancellor presents the names of the ministers and their portfolios to the President who appoints the members of government.

Any German citizen who is at least 18 years old can become Chancellor. A seat in the Bundestag is not necessary, but he (or she) needs to garner a majority of lawmakers' votes.

The Basic Law, the German Constitution, stipulates that the first session of the new Bundestag must take place within 30 days after the election.

The President officially proposes the candidate for Chancellor who then needs to win an absolute majority of the votes (50+1). If the candidate fails to achieve this, the members of the Bundestag can pick another candidate and put him or her to a vote within a fortnight. Again, an absolute majority is required.

If no candidate wins an absolute majority in the second round of voting either, a final ballot is held immediately. Whoever receives the most votes in that round is elected (simple majority).

If the Chancellor is elected with an absolute majority, the Federal President must appoint him or her within seven days. If the elected person only achieved a simple majority in the third round, the President must either appoint him or her within seven days or dissolve the Bundestag, triggering new elections within 60 days.

Contesting an election result

According to Germany's election review law, every individual eligible to vote in Germany can contest the validity of the election, as can groups of people eligible to vote. After each general election, there are hundreds of challenges to the results.

Objections must be made in writing to the election review commission with the Bundestag in Berlin within two months of election day.

The Election Review Commission processes all submissions. A decision is made on each individual challenge, and each objector receives written feedback from the Bundestag.

To invalidate the results of a Bundestag election, an objection must meet two requirements. First, there must be an electoral error that violates the Federal Election Act, the Federal Election Code, or the Constitution. Secondly, the reported electoral error would have to have an impact on the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.

To process all appeals, the commission needs about a year. Less than four percent of those cases reached the Constitutional Court. A German national vote has never been declared invalid.

Under normal circumstances, elections happen again four years later, and then it's back to square one.

This article has been updated to reflect the regulations as they apply to the general election in February 2025.