Each party may “join” its tickets; which is distinguished from “groups” of tickets, such as were allowed in the elections for the National Assembly. The “group” of tickets was a contract between the signatories of two or more tickets of different parties, the intention being to have these tickets considered in the counting of ballots as one and the same tickets as against other tickets. It was, therefore, an electoral alliance between different parties within the same district. These unions of tickets, as we have seen, are now forbidden. The new law, on the other hand, provides that tickets may be “joined,” that is to say, that a union may be effected of tickets of the same party within different electoral districts, in order to utilize best the electoral fractions. In order to be valid this combination must take place within the same group of districts and between lists belonging to the same party, that is to say, joined on the same ticket for the Reich. IV.--DISTRIBUTION OF SEATS. Seats are distributed among the tickets. Each district ticket receives one seat for every 60,000 votes cast for it in that district; the number of those elected, therefore, depends no longer on the vote of electors or of inhabitants but on the number of those voting. The votes which cannot enter into this count because their number is less than 60,000 remain unutilized if the ticket has not been joined to another in the same group of districts; or if it has not been combined in a ticket for the Reich. But if, as is the case usually, the situation is otherwise, the votes are treated differently, according as one of two of the following conditions is encountered: (_a_) If district tickets of the same party are joined together within a group of districts, the votes constituting the fractions described above are added together and the party receives as many seats as there are groups of 60,000 in the total. These seats are assigned to the ticket that receives the largest fraction, on the condition that this district ticket has already received at least 30,000 votes. The design is to avoid the possibility that small groups, in joining their lists, may obtain a seat at a time when they have not received in any district half the number of votes necessary to elect a member of the Reichstag. If this condition is not fulfilled the vote fractions are not utilized. (_b_) If the district tickets are not united, all these vote fragments are immediately transferred to the Reich ticket. Here, too, are assigned the vote fragments that remain after the operation provided in the above provision.