I got to say this is quite interesting. Not sure if I missed counter but is there like 26 different parties?
Actually the bigger thing I've got to ask, who's the tiny party with the three candidates and the one with just one?
(Both on the right hand side)

Good eye, its actually 28 partys. The party with three candidates is the Humanist party. The single candidate is the owner of a ferry over the river, who, from what I learned, wants to represent small local businesses in the assembly.

Very intriguing. :)

I'm fascinated by these types of things. I'm registered to vote here in the states, and it's interesting to see what a ballot looks like in Germany.

I´m always suprised/horrified that you have to register to vote in the US. In Germany you are automatically registert in the city/county you are registert as resident in.

I'm surprised you have to register as a resident in a city/county/province in your own country
Never had to do it here in NZ - unless you count "notifying the tax department where you live now so you can get their mail" as "residency registration".

Of course you need to register at the civic registry of your local town hall. The state needs to know where you live for administartive reasons. It is necessary to ensure which departments of labour, taxation, social security, housing, elections, health insurance etc. are resposible for you. Also your adress is marked on your identification cards, which every citizen over the age of 16 is required by law to carry at all times. To register is required by law within a fourthnight after moving into a new place, in fact it is one of the first things to do after moving. It ensures that everything runs smoothly and orderly. That some countrys do not require registration borders to anarchy to me.

I guess the primary reason for the difference is that Germany is (I believe) a federal system of states, each with their own government departments, and New Zealand... isn't. There is only one national ministry each of labour, taxation, social security, housing, elections, public health etc in NZ, so they cover everyone by default.
Essentially, for NZ it's as if the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was an independent country.

And we don't have a national ID card either. Though I've seen when I was working at the NZ "Department of Internal Affairs" that fact didn't stop some people trying to forge a document that doesn't exist... 🤦

Okay, it may work for smaller countries, even thou I wonder how the social network and law enforcement can run smothly if you can´t follow up where people live.
No ID card? But how do people identify themselves when the police asks for it, or when they buy alcohol or even at a cigarette vending machine?

Anglosphere (ex-British) countries tend to be rather leery of national ID cards, seeing them as a step (rightly or wrongly) towards an Orwellian "Big Brother" or Soviet Union "Papers, please" society. So in NZ other forms of photo ID are used, for example:
* Driver's licence
* Student ID
* Firearms licence
* Passport (uncommon for Kiwis, mostly for foreigners)
* "Kiwi Access" ID (an optional ID issued by Hospitality NZ for "proof of age to buy alcohol/cigarettes" for people 18 years and older who don't drive, don't own a firearm or passport and aren't students)

And yes, it's perfectly legal to not have any of the above IDs - though in practice stuff like a driver's licence is virtually a rite of passage so most people have one.
People also use a birth certificate as a proof of ID, despite it not actually being a valid form of ID at all.

Cigarette vending machines are illegal here in NZ, same as alcohol vending machines like the ones I saw in Japan a number of years ago.

I´m always suprised/horrified that you have to register to vote in the US. In Germany you are automatically registert in the city/county you are registert as resident in.
Well, you have to remember that we have a political party, not naming names, that wants to "conserve" the "traditional American values" from the antebellum days. That was back when all the power was held by old, rich, white, Protestant men, and that is the era they want to go back to, so in states where they have 'gerymandered' themselves into power, they do all they can to disenfranchise everyone except old, rich, white, Protestant men, and even if some of them are knocked off the rolls, that's fine in their books; the less voters, the better.

Now they don't speak for all Americans with that attitude, and in more Liberal areas of the country, you have a hard time NOT being registered to vote; the requirement to be a Citizen is mainly just for Federal elections, State and Municipal elections follow the rules of that particular State.

I love you americans, but I am honestly disgusted by your politics. For a country that is so proud on its democratic tradition, the US is abhorrently undemocratic, unequal and corrupt. From the point of view of a european liberal democracy. Seriously, in a hypothetical scenario in which the the US would apply for membership in the EU, it would be declined for serious democratic and social deficits. I´m not having a go at you, I love my american friends, but I feel sad for you and the system you have to live in.

I know, I know, our politics are horrible. With one side attempting compromise while the other is staunchly "no compromise," the Overton Window has been shifting steadily rightward.

Hopefully the strong support for Centrist (by EU standards) Bernie Sanders will help shift policy leftward. Also, the possible split of the GOP might help strengthen the Democrats during the chaos. (at least I hope so.)

That's quite a big paper!

Here, they usually give us two papers, one to vote nationally and one provincially. They have a photo of the candidate, the party logo and name and then a box for you to make your mark. The national list is often twice as long as the provincial one, and half of it consists of parties you've never heard of (nicknamed peanut parties).

One such party I remember well is one where its acronym spelled SOCCER. And yes, its party logo was a soccer ball.

The thing with the photo and the party logo, has that to do with literacy? I heard that there is still a lot of illiteracy anong poorer South Africans.

Probably. Illiteracy is indeed still a problem, especially in poorer and rural communities.

Good heavens...here in America there's grumbling that having only two main parties is detrimental, but this seems like the opposite extreme. How many of these groups are considered "major" players at the national level?

The parties that are represented in the national parliament, the Bundestag, which are currently CDU (Christian Democratic Union - Center right, currently in gouverment), SPD (Socialdemocratic Party of Germany - Center left, currently in gouverment), AfD (Alternative for Germany - extreme rightwing), Bündnis 90 - Die Grünen (Green Party -ecological center left), FDP (Free Democratic Party - liberal democrats) and Die Linke (The Left - leftwing). I think those parties can be considerd the mayor parties in germany.

O.O Wowsers.
I would need a whiteboard and/or spreadsheet (at the very least) to keep all of that straight come election day. Though the idea of ejecting the more extreme elements from the Republican and Democrat parties is quite appealing...

Think is there are other parties in the US other than Republicans and Democrats in the US but people seemingly dont care enough to turn the country into a true multi party system.

Sad but true...but a guy can dream, right?

That's a ballot paper?!? It looks more like a convention guest list

How long does it take to fill out? Please tell me that's not on A4 size paper...

It´s abou the size of a blanket, and if you fill it out by candidates, it takes a while. You have 93 votes on this ballot and 19 votes on the one for the municipal district concil after all.

"Can't talk, I'm voting!"

Why does Germany have to have such a complicated ballot? Why can't there be just 4 people to choose from? I think most of those exist just to take votes away from the actual important parties.

As for registering to vote: That prevents non-citizens from voting, because they should not have a say in this country's politics until they've gained their citizenship.

Because Democracy is not simple. If you dumb democracy down to much, things like the Orange Loser and Brexit happen. More parties and more candidates mean more competition, more discussion, more compromise. More for the citizen to choose from. Which forces politicians to work for the citizen and not their donators.
And registering to vote to prevent "non-citizens" from voting is a non-argument. In Germany every citizen automatically gets a voting registration per mail, 4 weeks ahead of the election, that they show at the polling station along with their ID.

+ 1
We've used an MMP system here in NZ (based on the German one) for over twenty years now, and for most of that time we've had coalition governments with no real issues. In fact, the British came to us for advice on coalitions when the Conservatives/Liberal Democrats got into power a few years ago. Our only "rule alone" government under MMP was actually Ardern's Labour government re-elected last year, due in no small part to the government's excellent response to the COVID pandemic.

While we also have voter registration, voting registration drives are operated by an independent commission and coincide with the leadup to both local body and national elections. Registration is mainly to work out what electorate you're in.

Voter ID is a good idea, because it helps prevent voter fraud (what little there is). Democrats here in the US try to claim requiring an ID to vote is racist because its meant to prevent minorities from voting (even though there are easy ways to get a free government ID done)

Vozrt fraud is an absolute non issue. The real problems in US elections are voter supression and out of control gerrymandering. I tell you something. We don´t have voter ID in Germany. Every german citizen, EVERY SINGLE ONE, over the age of 18 is automatically registerd to vote, no matter ethniticity, sexual identity, religion or political alignment. Everybody is allowe to vote and there is no voter fraud.

As for registering to vote: That prevents non-citizens from voting, because they should not have a say in this country's politics until they've gained their citizenship.
And yet you tax non-citizen permanent residents the same as citizens? What happened to "no taxation without representation"?

Here in NZ, "You’re eligible to enrol and vote if you are 18 years or older, a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and you’ve lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more at some time in your life."
Which means my father, who despite never needing to assume citizenship since he came out to NZ with his parents in the 1950s and has lived here (and paid taxes for) the bulk of his life, has the same voting rights as I who is an NZ citizen by birth - and I'm perfectly OK with that.

Ah, the wonders of democracy! It's wonderful to see that even through a pandemic, the democratic process can still carry on unabated. ^__^

Democrataidd? Yn fwy fel gwallgofrwydd yn cymryd rheolaeth, os gwelwch yn dda cael newid union.