Editing Prussian three-class franchise (section)

=== Election of electors (primary election) ===
Choosing electors took place in a meeting of the primary voters on a day that was uniform throughout the state. The election was held separately by classes. If there was a total of three electors to be chosen, each class elected one; if there were six, each elected two. If there were four electors to be chosen, the first and third classes each elected one and the second class two; if there were 5 electors to be chosen, the first and third classes each elected two and the second class elected only one. An elector had to be eligible to vote in the primary election district but did not have to be a member of the class in which he was elected.

The third class voted first, the first last. Voting was not secret. When voting was completed in a class, its voters, unless they were members of the electoral board, had to leave the polling station. The voters of the first class could observe the voting behavior of all voters, those of the second could observe the third, while the voters of the third class did not know how the higher classes voted.

Voters were called one after the other in descending order of their tax payments. The voter named one or two candidates depending on the number of electors to be chosen in the class. An absolute majority of those voting was required for election. If an absolute majority was not achieved, those men not yet elected who had the most votes were placed on a runoff ballot, twice as many of them as there were electors still to be elected. In most cases the electors won by a large majority.

Those men elected had to declare their acceptance or rejection of the election immediately, if present, otherwise within three days, including election day. If an elector who was not present rejected the results, a by-election was held a few days later.

In 1906, in cities with a population of 50,000 or more, the electoral assembly was replaced by the time-limit voting that is now common practice, allowing voters to cast their ballots within a specified period of time.