news has asked the public what they wonder about elections and politics. We have received several hundred questions. Here we answer one of them. – I haven’t quite understood how personal voices actually work, says Jon Punsvik. He meets news outside the polling station at Laksevåg center in Bergen. He is not alone in the question. – We get a number of questions from voters who wonder the same thing, says Herman Christensen, senior adviser at the Norwegian Electoral Directorate. Matters a lot in the municipal election You can give personal votes both in the municipal council and in the county council elections. – Personal votes allow the voters to highlight the candidates they like best, answers Christensen. ✅On your polling station, all the candidates from a party are listed. To the left of the name is a box where you can put a cross. This is where you give personal votes. 📇When the ballots are counted, you also count who gets the most crosses. Those with the most crosses get seats in the municipal council or on the county council and therefore get a lot of power. In the run-up to the election, Herman Christensen and his colleagues in the Norwegian Electoral Directorate receive a number of questions from voters who wonder how personal votes work. Photo: Directorate of Elections In the municipal council election, you can also vote for people from other party lists to strengthen the chance of getting them elected to the municipal council. Then you give a slengjar (slenger, in Bokmål). There is no law in the county council election. You can give layovers to a maximum of a quarter of those who are to be voted into the municipal council. In municipalities with small municipal councils, you can always give five grace years. – But when you give a slangjar, you also give away a bit of your vote to the party the slangjar belongs to, explains Christensen. In the county council election, it is not allowed to give slang years. Personal votes are allowed, but they do not count as much from the first vote, as they do in municipal elections. Photo: Oda Flaten Lødemel In a municipality with 35 municipal council representatives, each voting seat constitutes 35 list votes. – If, for example, you vote for the Right and give two years to the Liberal Party, the Right will get 33 list votes and the Liberal Party 2. Candidates on the list proposal A party that wants to present a list in the municipal council or county council election can choose which candidates they want to present a list with. For municipal council and county council elections, the lists must be completed in order with a minimum of seven candidates. The proposed list can contain a maximum of as many candidates as the number of representatives to be elected to the county council or municipal council, with an addition of up to six other names. In the municipal election, a certain number of the top candidates on the list can get an additional vote. Source: Vallova Jon Punsvik has noticed that the names at the top of the lists are in bold. That’s because the candidates get a 25 percent vote bonus, which the party has decided in advance. Therefore, the top of the list will almost always be chosen first. Matters less in the county council election – In the municipal council election, one person’s vote counts from the start, which means that one candidate can move ahead of another on the list, with just one more vote, says Christensen. This is not the case in the county council election. There is a blocking limit of 8 percent before the personal votes tel. Punsvik has not thought much about giving personal votes, as he has been unsure of what the consequences of that are. The list he looks at here is random and has nothing to do with his choice. Photo: Oda Flaten Lødemel – If a party receives 1,000 votes in the county council election, a candidate on that list must have received 80 personal votes before they count. In practice, this means that it is easier to influence who you want in a municipal council than in the county council. Was in last place, got into the city council Former mayor of Bergen, Herman Friele, has experienced how important personal votes are. In 2019, he came in 72nd and last place on Høgre’s party list. Thanks to 1,024 personal votes and 83 years in prison, he jumped up to 11th place and joined the city council. – It was not expected and it was a little surprising that it happened, says Friele today. Herman Friele together with then Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Although he was surprised to join the city council in 2019, he was prepared that it could happen. Photo: Ida Yasin Andersen / news – People think that the further down the list you are, the less chance you have of being elected. But that is not the case. Herman Christensen agrees with his namesake: – One should think through before saying yes to being on a municipal council list. Last place does not mean that one cannot be selected. Friele will give personal votes when he votes in this year’s election and encourages others to do the same. – Then you yourself can contribute to bringing in the people you trust and believe can do something better for society.
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How do personal voices work? – news Vestland
