2020 Bavarian local elections
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The 2020 Bavarian local elections took place on March 15, 2020, in all municipalities of the Free State of Bavaria as elections of the municipal and district assemblies as well as in the majority of municipalities and districts as elections of the (Lord)Mayors and district administrators. In the bodies where none of the candidates achieved more than 50%, a runoff between the two leading candidates was held again on March 29. The terms of office of the elected began on May 1, 2020.
In total, around 39,500 mandates were to be filled in the 71 districts, 25 independent cities and over 2,000 municipalities of Bavaria. The municipal representatives are elected every six years in general elections according to the Bavarian municipal election law in a combination of cumulating and panachage, with each voter generally having as many votes as there are municipal council and district council seats to be allocated.[1]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, precautionary measures were taken at the local elections, which in the opinion of some election helpers were insufficient. It was also criticized that the elections were held at all.[2] The Christian Social Union achieved their worst ever results in the history of the state, and the Social Democratic Party also suffered heavy losses. The Greens gained many votes and became the second biggest party, but far behind what was expected.[3]
Changes in electoral law
In the 2020 local election, the count was carried out for the first time using the Sainte-Laguë method, which replaced the Hare/Niemeyer method in force since 2013. Here, the votes of the parties are divided by a certain number, the divisor, which must be newly determined for each election. The number of mandates for each party is determined from the rounded results. It is considered the counting method in which the least disadvantages occur for large as well as small parties. The CSU had advocated for counting according to the D'Hondt method, which disadvantages small parties.[6][7]
The new Bavarian municipal electoral law also abolished list connections. In return, multiple lists from individual parties may be registered for election under certain conditions.[8]
COVID-19 and postal voting
Postal voting was also, but not solely, used more intensively on March 15, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Bavaria.[9]
On March 29, 2020, the necessary runoffs were conducted as pure postal votes following a change in the law.[10] The documents were automatically sent to the eligible voters.[11][12]
Against this background, Landtag Vice-President Markus Rinderspacher (SPD) proposed to proceed in the same way for future Landtag and Bundestag elections; polling stations should be abolished.[13][14] In view of increasing mobility, this is a "contemporary, citizen-friendly and sensible voting option."[15][16][17]
The counting of votes took longer than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as many election helpers reported sick at short notice or stayed at home as a precaution. In Munich, Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter therefore obliged tenured teachers to help with the counting.[18]
