How county elections are conducted

In county elections, the wellbeing services counties constitute the electoral districts. Candidates are nominated for the entire wellbeing services county, voters can only vote for the candidates standing for election in their own wellbeing services county, and the results are calculated separately for each county.

The open-list proportional electoral system is applied in the same way as in municipal elections. The proportional electoral system means that a political party receives a number of seats in the decision-making body to be elected, in this case the county council, that is proportional to the number of votes it receives in relation to other groups. For example, if a political party receives around 20% of the votes cast, it should also receive around 20% of the seats. Proportionality is realised in county elections by applying the so-called d’ Hondt method, which is already applied in the Finnish parliamentary elections, municipal elections and elections to the European Parliament.