Election weekend. It happened.

Sunday was election day. I just looked back on my posts and found that this election was the second one of 2013. In January, Niedersachsen state elections sent Hannover's mayor to the Landtag, the state congress. This time around, elections were held for a new mayor and for the national representatives, the Bundestag.
I will spare you any explanation of parlimentary democracy, the pirate party, or the black-gold coalition. To be honest I don't understand them very well anyway, and if you are interested just look at the post from Jan 22nd.

What I will tell you about it what election day looks like in Hannover to an outsider. I'm an outsider because I can't vote here and because I have no TV on which to watch annoying campaign commercials. Mostly what I see are posters. They are all sort of the same... you can look for yourself.
Here are the two mayoral candidates:

And here's a whole bunch of posters together. The design doesn't vary much no matter who is running:

And they show off not terribly catchy slogans like "successful together"or "for you in the Bundestag". Here are some posters for the national representative race:

Aside from the posters and some newspaper headlines, it would have been hard to know that Sunday was election day in Hannover (I don't buy the newspaper either but sometimes I try to read the headlines as I walk past the kiosk). I didn't see any election night parties and no one sported and "I voted" sticker (the best part of U.S. election day is watching adults walk around like second graders, proud to have stickers on their shirts. I am one of them). There are no cute animals to represent political parties, only colors. And since the whole country is in one time zone, there is no early tally as the east coast polls close and suspense until west coast votes come in three hours later. In the end, even the most die-hard political supporters could see their party not win outright, but strike up a coalition with the same people they just ran against. In fact, no party has had an absolute majority in 50 years.

Let's think in stereotypes for a minute (admit it, stereotypes are easy and fun). The German election is very, well, German. It is logical and practical and not terribly dramatic or exciting. It minds its own business and takes only controlled risks. It wears a scarf, glasses and skinny jeans.
The American election lives up to its stereotype too. It is full of showing off and flashiness and drama but in the end probably doesn't deliver on all its promises. It's dressed in something like go-go boots and a leopard print tube top.

I do support the idea of having election day on a weekend, rather than the first Tuesday after the first Monday after the Olympics on the non leap year during the full moon, or whenever the U.S. opens its polls. I know that the first Tuesday in November was the most convenient day for early 19th century farmers, but it's trickier for the Monday - Friday crowd. And, as loyal reader Nick Falk points out, Tuesday night is 45 cent wing night at Buffalo Wild Wings. I can't believe the founding fathers didn't think about that.

There is a small amount of excitement in this election: a runoff. Neither candidate won an absolute majority in the election for Hannover's mayor, so they'll do it all over again on October 6th. Hopefully that will generate some buzz in town... maybe the candidates will even ditch their dress shoes and wear some go-go boots on election night.