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In light of the growing interest in voting by mail, political science research has increasingly focused on this important aspect of democratic participation . Studies in this field have scrutinized the practical implementation of the mail ballot . A systematic review of the lit- erature on the practice of voting by mail shows possible reforms . Five approaches are dis- cussed, (1) a more generous deadline for submitting postal votes, (2) simplifying the mail- in ballots, (3) translating them, (4) personal notifications in case of rejected mail ballots, and (5) incorporating data about rejected mail ballots into the official election results . In this way, the number of erroneous votes can be reduced and more transparency about the voting process can be secured . It is also required as a measure of citizen-oriented public administration

Previous scholarship has provided ample evidence that non-spatial considerations can trump voters' policy preferences in candidate selections. The literature has been less successful, however, in providing a sense of the factors that raise candidates' non-policy appeal. Faced with the challenging task of separating policy and non-policy aspects of individual vote choices, empirical research has frequently relied on shorthand measures like candidate incumbency. This paper separates the valence component from policy-based candidate selections by explicitly supplying voters with information on the policy agreement between themselves and their district candidates. Relying on the distinction between campaign valence and character valence by Stone and Simas, it is shown that candidate valence is driven by candidate visibility in a party-dominated political system.

"Dieser Aufsatz beschäftigt sich mit dem Effekt der Komplexität des Wahlsystems auf die soziodemografische Zusammensetzung der Wählerschaft. Dabei wird die Reform des Hessischen Kommunalwahlrechts aus dem Jahr 1999 betrachtet, anhand derer sich Effekte bei Konstanthaltung der Randbedingungen betrachten lassen. Der Kern der Reform bestand in der Einführung des Kumulierens und Panaschierens sowie einer deutlichen Ausweitung der abzugebenden Stimmen - im Extremfall bis zu 93. Es wird untersucht, ob die Wahlbeteiligung in benachteiligten Bezirken systematisch stärker zurückgegangen ist bzw. ob der Anteil ungültiger Stimmen stärker zugenommen hat als im Landesmittel. Im Ergebnis lässt sich festhalten, dass die Wahlbeteiligung im Land Hessen deutlich ab-, während der Anteil ungültiger Stimmen zunahm. Darüber hinaus kann gezeigt werden, dass dieser Effekt stärker in benachteiligten Stadtteilen zum Tragen kommt. Somit gibt es systematische Effekte der Wahlrechtsreform auf die Zusammensetzung der Wählerschaft in Richtung größerer Ungleichheit. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Empfehlung zugunsten einer Vereinfachung des Hessischen Wahlrechts." (Autorenreferat)

For many decades, stability and predictability were the defining features of German party competition. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, West German politics was dominated by the well-known two-and-a-half party system, which later expanded with the rise of the Greens in the 1980s and the addition of the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) after German reunification.1 Despite the expanding party system, party competition continued to be anchored by the CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) on the center-right and the SPD (Social Democratic Party) on the center-left, such that government coalitions at the federal and state level could typically be formed by two coalition partners, while ideologically coherent coalitions among parties on the left or the right were the norm.

Personalized campaign styles are of increasing importance in contemporary election campaigns at all levels of politics. Surprisingly, we know little about their implications for the behavior of successful candidates once they take public office. This paper aims to fill this gap in empirical and theoretical ways. It shows that campaign personalization results in legislative personalization. Legislators that ran personalized campaigns are found to be more likely to deviate in roll call votes and to take independent positions on the floor. These findings result from a novel dataset that matches survey evidence on candidates' campaign styles in the 2009 German Federal Elections with the legislative behavior of successful candidates in the 17th German Bundestag (2009–2013). Combining data from the campaign and legislative arenas allows us to explore the wider consequences of campaign personalization.

Personalized campaign styles are of increasing importance in contemporary election campaigns at all levels of politics. Surprisingly, we know little about their implications for the behavior of successful candidates once they take public office. This paper aims to fill this gap in empirical and theoretical ways. It shows that campaign personalization results in legislative personalization. Legislators that ran personalized campaigns are found to be more likely to deviate in roll call votes and to take independent positions on the floor. These findings result from a novel dataset that matches survey evidence on candidates' campaign styles in the 2009 German Federal Elections with the legislative behavior of successful candidates in the 17th German Bundestag (2009–2013). Combining data from the campaign and legislative arenas allows us to explore the wider consequences of campaign personalization. © The Author(s) 2020.