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Normative theories of democracy do not pay much attention to technicalities of voting, implicitly assuming that these do not influence voting behaviour & election outcomes significantly. However, it is not clear whether this is actually the case. In this article we analyse whether one such technical detail matters for voting behaviour: the ballot position. Based on previous research in the field, we discuss ballot position effects & deduce hypotheses concerning list position effects in the 2003 Bavarian state election. In the empirical analysis, it turns out that ballot positions had a considerable influence on voting behaviour in this election, especially, the top position on party lists rendered a large bonus of votes. Obviously, technicalities matter. Tables, Figures, References. [Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.]