The European elections 2014: Ballot structures and seat assignments

Single ballot paper. Every voter has one vote. Additionally a voter may cast one preferential vote for a candidate of the selected party. Therefore he/she has to record either the candidate's last name or his/her ``ranknumber'' (Reihungsnummer).

Candidates with at least 5% of preferential votes of their partie's candidates are considered first. It turns out that this treshold, although it was recently lowered from 7 to 5 percent, is too high in order that preferential votes have any influence in the filling of candidates.

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Ballot papers vary across the four electoral constituencies (Brussels Capital region, Walloon, Flemish, German-speaking). Every voter may either cast one vote for a party list, or a party list and multiple candidates of that list, or multiple candidates from one list. All ballot papers {zip}.

Ballot sheets that do not include at least one candidate vote provide benefit for the candidates listed first. The number of these ballot sheets is divided by two and is added to the top-ranked candidate's preferential votes. If his/her votes surpass the ``Wählbarkeitsziffer'', i.e. the number of total party votes divided by the number of total party seats plus 1, the surpluss is transferred to the candidate listed 2nd, etc.

Only within the Dutch electotal college's "Open Vld" preferential votes influence the filling of candidates. Karel De Gucht, former rapperteur on European Elections, is lifted from the list rank 12 to 3.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has one vote to give to a party or to an independent candidate. In case the vote is given to a party, voters may mark one out of maximal 17 candidates from that party.

Preferential votes cast for candidates are only taken into consideration in case the number of votes obtained by a candidate is at least 15% of valid preferential nvotes cast for the candidate list. Only BSP candidate ranked 15 is elected due to its preferential votes.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has one vote to give to a party or to an independent candidate. In case the elector decides to vote for a party list he/she may additionally express his preference for a specific candidate or candidates of the list of his choice. Crosses of preference should not be more than two.

The votes received by the candidates determine who is elected.

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Each political party, movement and coalition has its own ballot paper. Voters receive an official envelope and all ballot tickets. The voter shall place one ballot ticket into the official envelope. He/she may indicate up to two preferred candidates. More ballot papers {pdf}.

Preferential votes cast for candidates are taken into consideration only in case they amount at least to 5% of all preferential votes of the respective party. Only within the "Komunisticka str.Cech a Moravy" party the preferential votes have an effect, so that the candiate listed 4th is elected while the candidate listed 3rd is not.

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Ballot papers vary across the 16 Bundesländer. Parties are allowed to register nationwide candidate lists or lists for different Bundesländer. Only the Christian Democratic parties (CDU/CSU) chose no to register nationwide lists. Hence, the ballot papers differ only with respect to the CDU/CSU regional lists. Every voter has one vote to give to a party. A maximum of ten names of each party's candidates are printed on the ballot sheet. The party decides on the ranking of the candidates. More ballot papers {jpeg}.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter may either cast one vote for a party or directly for a candidate of the listed parties.

The votes received by the candidates determine who is elected.

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Single ballot paper or E-voting. Voters have to fill in the number of their favorite candidates. Electronic ballot paper {jpeg}.

The votes received by the candidates determine who is elected.

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Every Party or coalition has its own ballot paper. Voters choose one of them and can express a preference for a maximum of four candidates of that list.

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Every party or coalition has its own ballot paper. A voter chooses the ballot paper of his/her preferred party and puts it into an apposite envelope. There are slight differences in the ballot papers across the various language regions. All ballot papers {zip}.

The parties decide on the ranking of their candidates.

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Single ballot paper. Voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate directly by putting the corresponding number on the ballot paper.

The votes received by the candidates determine who is elected.

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Every party or coalition has its own ballot paper. Voters choose the ballot paper his/her preferred party. More ballot papers {zip}.

The parties decide on the ranking of their candidates.

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Single ballot paper. Voters vote for a single candidate slate. Voters may designate one single candidate.

Preferential votes cast for candidates are only taken into consideration in case the number of votes obtained by a candidate is at least 10% of valid preferential nvotes cast for the candidate list. Only one is elected due to its preferential votes.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has one vote to give to a party.

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The names of the candidates appear in alphabetical order on the ballot paper, together with their photograph, political affiliation and party emblem, if any. The voter indicates the order of their choice by writing 1 opposite the name of their first choice, 2 opposite the name of their second choice, 3 opposite the name of their third choice and so on. More ballot papers {jpeg}.

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The ballot paper's color varies across the five electoral constituencies (North-west: gray, North-east: brown, center: red, Meridional: orange, Insular: pink). Voters stamp next to their party's symbol. Additionally they have up to three preferential votes by putting the candidate's name next to party symbol. In case of three preferences at least one has to be male and one female. If there is no gender diversity in the voter’s preferences, the second and third preferences will be deemed null and void. More ballot papers {zip}.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has one party vote. Additionally he/she may give up to five preferential votes by putting the respective numbers in the squares at the ballot's bottom line.

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Every voter has six votes. He/she can freely distribute these votes to candidates of various lists with a maximum of two votes per candidate. Alternatively the voter may vote for a single party.

Votes are counted by lists, and candidates are elected according to their number of preferential votes.

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Every party or coalition has its own ballot paper. Voters vote for one party. Preferential votes and penalizing votes can be given to any of the list's candidates. Within a list candidates are elected according to their personal votes.

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Single ballot paper. Voters are asked to give a preference ranking to as many candidates on the ballot as they wish, in numerical order: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.. Voters may choose candidates from different political parties. More ballot papers {jpeg}.

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Single ballot paper. A single vote can be given to one of the candidates of the voter's preferred party.

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Each party has its own ballot paper indicating its candidates. The ballot papers are combined in a booklet. Each voter has one vote which he/she can give to a candidate of his/her preferred party. More ballot papers {jpeg}.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has a single party vote. The names of the parties' candidates are not printed on the ballot sheet. The party decides on the ranking of the candidates.

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Every voter receives a booklet and a stamp in exchange to his/her passport. The complete ranking of candidates of every party is given in the booklet. Voters stamp next to their party's symbol. All ballot papers {pdf}.

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Every party has its own ballot paper. Every voter has one party vote. Additionally a voter may give one preferential vote. In case the word "anmälda" is printed on the ballot paper the voter may not vote for a candidate that is not listed. All ballot papers {pdf}.

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Single ballot paper. Every voter has one party vote. In order to express his/her opinion one has to circle the party’s number. Facultatively one preferential vote can be given. For postal voting a voter enters the name of his/her preferred party in the right-hand box. Additionally the voter may enter the name of his/her preferred candidate from the chosen party in the left-hand box. Postal voting ballot {pdf}.

Preference votes are taken into account only if the number of preference votes for an individual candidate exceeds the quotient calculated by dividing the total number of votes cast for the list by double the number of candidates on the list. Two out of 8 candidates were elected due to their preferential votes.

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Every party has its own ballot paper. Every voter has one party vote. On the ballot the voter may circle the serial number of at most two candidates to indicate his/her preferred candidates. All ballot papers {pdf}.

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Voters have a single party vote.

In Northern-Ireland voters are asked to give a preference ranking to as many candidates on the ballot as they wish. Voters may choose candidates from different political parties.