There were in addition different proposals made to abolish it completely and to replace it by a procedure which would do away entirely with electoral lists. There would be given to each elector an “electoral passport” or a “citizenship card”[28] which would be sufficient to enable him to vote. But these propositions were rejected because of the considerable cost of the passports or of the cards, and because of the technical difficulties of furnishing adequate photographs of all the electors, necessitated by this scheme; and in addition because for certain votes, such as plebiscites and initiatives, it is necessary that the number of individuals having the right to vote be known, which would be difficult according to the systems proposed.
Another proposal achieved more success; that of electoral cards. This system consists in this, that electoral lists, instead of being made up by the administrative authorities, are made up by the electors themselves. To this end there are given by the communes to their electors cards which consist of several coupons. The elector fills out his card and returns it to the municipality, which verifies and completes it. The cards are then sent to the seat of the electoral district and are numbered. Then the coupons are detached. Coupons Number 1 make up the electoral lists; coupons Number 2 make up a duplicate; coupons Number 3 are sent back to the electors. This last coupon is for the elector a proof that he is entered on the electoral rolls and establishes his identity and the number he bears on the roll, before the election board. It is his voting card.
This system is a simplification, in the sense that it dispenses with the making of an alphabetical list and puts part of the work on the elector. But in spite of these advantages it has not been completely adopted. The electoral law provides, that, the different districts before each election must prepare lists of its electors; and it leaves to them the choice of preparing this list either according to customary rule for electoral lists, or according to the procedure of electoral cards.
The elector is entered on the list of the district in which he lives, and it is there theoretically that he is supposed to vote. But there is an exception to this rule; if he is away from home on the day of election, either because of business reasons that compel his travelling at the time of election, or because of a necessary absence at some health resort, or because he has had to change his residence before election, he can demand an electoral certificate[29] which will permit him to vote in any electoral district of the Reich.
This innovation has appeared to present little danger, for in the new electoral system a political party is never interested in getting more votes in one district than in another.
Every elector is eligible as candidate for the Reichstag on the double condition that on the day of election he is twenty-five years old, and that he has been a naturalized German for at least a year. In addition to this he must be regularly placed on the list of candidates.
It will be recalled that for the National Assembly every elector was eligible; one could thus be elected member at the age of twenty. Actually, however, the youngest elected was twenty-seven years old. The new law returned to the rule followed for the former Reichstag in fixing the minimum age at twenty-five.
It must be noted that those who, without being permanently deprived of the right to vote, are only prevented from voting by certain special circumstances, because of being under colours, or imprisonment, or because by mistake they have been left off electoral lists, are eligible for election. In the same way civil servants are also eligible. German law does not know relative ineligibilities, which French public law admits.
III.—PREPARATION OF ELECTIONS.
In a country of sixty million inhabitants of whom more than half are electors and vote, above all, where the system of proportional representation has been adopted, preparation of the elections takes on special importance. An organization must be provided which permits to each elector the exercise of his right, and, as far as possible, facilitates it.