The two votes perform different tasks.
The first vote chooses between constituency candidates. The second goes to a state list. “First” and “second” name types of vote, not their order of importance. Second votes determine seat allocation among parties.
The exam answer summarises the combination of candidate selection by a plurality principle and proportional representation. It should not be read as two entirely independent blocks of seats simply added together. The rules link constituency outcomes to the proportional result.
The other three answers
The other options describe exclusions or historical inequalities rather than the present system.
census suffrage.
Property-based or census suffrage ties voting rights to economic conditions such as property or taxation. It is not today’s general and equal Bundestag election.
three-class suffrage.
Historical three-class suffrage divided voters by tax contribution into groups with unequal influence. It does not describe today’s Bundestag election.
universal male suffrage.
Present-day suffrage is not restricted to men. General and equal electoral principles exclude that restriction.
The familiar shorthand needs the current rules alongside it.
Since the 2025 federal election, a party candidate’s constituency seat depends on second-vote coverage. The once-familiar claim that every constituency winner automatically enters parliament does not describe this law correctly. Independent individual candidates have separate rules.
Thresholds, exceptions and allocation to state lists also enter the complete calculation. The test question initially asks only for the matching system description. It is no reason to put historical or shortened memory rules ahead of current seat-allocation law.
§ 1 · Federal Elections Act ↗First vote: candidate. Second vote: proportional party seats.
The catalogue phrase combines two elements; second votes remain decisive for parties’ seat allocation.
Three words for this question
- die Verhältniswahlproportional representation
- Allocation of seats according to proportions of votes.
- der Wahlkreisconstituency
- A geographical electoral district for choosing a candidate with the first vote.
- die Zweitstimmendeckungsecond-vote coverage
- The requirement that a party’s constituency seat be covered by its second-vote seat allocation.