Tuesday, September 18, 2018

How State Elections in Germany Work

This is mostly a essay to discuss how state elections function in terms of the campaign season.

We are more or less....30 days out from Hessen's state election.  This past week, they approved the period where you can put signs up in public (yes, it's basically a 30-day window).

The signs are in two general sizes: (1) regular, being 3 ft by 3 ft usually and (2) large, being 20 ft by 8 ft.  Most all are colorful, with the image of the chief candidate running, their name, and some phrase (free stuff).  Folks with markers will roam around and draw fake moustaches on some of the signs.

Speeches?  What will happen is that a bus tour will occur through Hessen with the party having two or three big names, and having a one-hour stop in towns and villages to hype up the party situation.

The HR folks (our public TV crowd) will give some time to the parties to chat over topics.

Promises will be made, but rarely do any of them reach some point of delivery (most people claim this).

73-percent of folks showed up in the last election (2013), and you can generally expect around the same number this time.  Total number of registered folks?  4.4-million residents.

Do locals get hyped up?  Well.....no.  It's not connected to a national election this time (unlike last time), and there is no big topic in the state of Hessen to feel hyped about.  Will folks discuss local politics at work or at the pub?  Not really.  Other than the property tax business which infuriates everyone, and they all expect to be screwed.....there's nothing much going on. 

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