Editing Bundestag (section)

==Election and membership==
===Election system (since 2023)===
{{See also|List of German Bundestag constituencies|State list (Germany)}} After the imperial Reichstag was elected according to a pure first-past-the-post electoral system (with run-off elections) and the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic according to a pure proportional representation system, [[mixed-member proportional representation]], a system combining [[proportional representation]] with elements of [[first-past-the-post voting]], has been used for the Bundestag since the founding of the Federal Republic. Before an electoral reform in 2023, the Bundestag nominally had 598 members, with the mixture of majority and proportional representation regularly leading to a large number of additional overhang and compensation mandates.<ref name="Matthias Cantow-2017">{{cite web|author1=Martin Fehndrich|author2=Wilko Zicht|author3=Matthias Cantow|url=http://www.wahlrecht.de/bundestag/index.htm|title=Wahlsystem der Bundestagswahl|publisher=Wahlrecht.de|date=22 September 2017|access-date=26 September 2017}}</ref> In 2023, this was remedied with a series of modifications that led to a fixed number of seats of 630 and significantly increased the proportional aspect; after this revised electoral law was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court with some modifications following constitutional complaints, it was applied for the first time in [[2025 German federal election|2025]].

Every elector has two votes: a constituency vote ([[first vote]]) and a party list vote ([[second vote]]). Based solely on the first votes, 299 members are elected in [[single-member constituency|single-member constituencies]] by first-past-the-post voting. The second votes are used to produce a proportional number of seats for parties, first on the federal level and then on state level ([[Sainte-Laguë method]]). In most cases, the number of constituencies won by a party in a given state does not exactly correspond to the number of seats to which the party is entitled in that state via second votes. This is balanced in two different ways: 
*If a party wins more constituency seats in a state than its second votes would entitle it to, only the correspondent number of constituency winners with the highest percentage of first votes are elected.{{efn|Before 2023, overhang seats were added  for the surplus constituency seats a party had won, and levelling seats added to maintain the proportional share of other parties. Levelling seats were also added to maintain the proportional share of seats between different states.}}
*If a party wins fewer constituencies in a state than it is entitled to based on the second-vote result, the highest-placed candidates from the state list are elected accordingly to the additional seats.

To qualify for any seats, however, a party must either win three single-member constituencies via first votes ({{Ill|Basic mandate clause|lt=basic mandate clause|de|Grundmandat}}) or exceed a [[electoral threshold|threshold]] of 5% of the second votes nationwide. This does not apply to independent constituency candidates: these always enter the Bundestag if they win their constituency (however, no independent constituency candidate has managed to win a constituency since [[1949 West Germany federal election|1949]]). Seats allocated in this way are subtracted from the base number of 630 when the mandates are distributed among the parties. In addition, the second votes of voters who have elected a successful independent constituency candidate are not taken into account when calculating the number of mandates (although they are for the 5% threshold).

Parties representing recognized national minorities (currently [[Danes#Danish diaspora|Danes]], [[Frisians]], [[Sorbs]], and [[Romani people]]) are exempt from both the 5% national threshold and the basic mandate clause. The only party that has been able to benefit from this provision so far on the federal level is the [[South Schleswig Voters' Association]], which represents the minorities of Danes and Frisians in [[Schleswig-Holstein]] and managed to win a seat in [[1949 West German federal election|1949]], [[2021 German federal election|2021]], and [[2025 German federal election|2025]].<ref>{{Citation|last=NDR|title=Stefan Seidler (SSW): "Die ersten Zahlen sind sensationell"|date=26 September 2021|url=https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/bundestagswahl_2021/Stefan-Seidler-SSW-Die-ersten-Zahlen-sind-sensationell,shmag86702.html|language=de|access-date=27 September 2021}}</ref>
[[File:Bundestagswahl 05 stimmzett.jpg|thumb|right|Bundestag ballot from the [[2005 German federal election|2005 election]] in the [[Würzburg]] district. The column for the constituency vote (with the name, occupation, and address of each candidate) is on the left in black print; the column for the party list vote (showing top five list candidates in the state) is on the right in blue print.]]

===Succession in case of early retirement===
If a member of parliament leaves the Bundestag during the current legislative session, either through resignation or death, another candidate from that party from the corresponding state takes their place. Successful constituency candidates who did not receive a seat in the previous election due to the principle of second vote coverage are considered first, followed by the candidates on the respective state list. However, if the list is exhausted, the seat in question remains vacant for the remainder of the session. If the departing member was an independent constituency candidate, the seat also remains empty.