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Old 11-March-2008, 08:05 PM
Halcyon Dayz's Avatar
Halcyon Dayz Halcyon Dayz is offline
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Lightbulb Hammelsprung

I found the answer in the German language Wiki, which is useless if you can't read German.

The answer is Hammelsprung.

A hammel is a male domesticated sheep.

A hammelsprung is a gate just wide enough to let one sheep through at the time, for the purpose of doing a head count.

In Bundestag parlance the hammelsprung is a voting procedure where the representatives enter the hall through three different gates.
Gates for the Yeahs, the Nays, and the undecided.
The Westminster Parliament has a somewhat similar procedure called the Division of the House.

Tradition is nice, but electronic voting would certainly speed things up.
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