First vote

In Germany, the first vote (German: Erststimme) is used to elect a direct candidate in a constituency.

[1] In German federal elections [de] each political party may nominate one candidate within a constituency.

In a non-personalized proportional representation system without constituencies, this is not automatically the case.

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.

In the Bavarian state election system [de], the first votes also count towards the proportional distribution of seats.

Explanatory video: First and second votes in the federal election