The German Reichstag Elections of July 31, 19321

Republican Germany elected its sixth Reichstag under the "Weimar constitution on July 31. The largest vote ever cast for a Reichstag membership was recorded at this election—about thirty-eight million people, or 83.2 per cent of the qualified voters, casting ballots. Despite the predictions of disorder, and even violent revolution, the election day was quiet and orderly. Thousands of Germans, taking advantage of the liberal absentee voting law, voted at pleasure resorts where they had gone to spend the week-end. A certificate from the home precinct enables a German citizen to vote anywhere in the Reich. In the cities, voters waited in long lines at the polling places; but there was no congestion, for the actual voting took but a fraction of a minute and the whole voting procedure was well systematized.