German State Votes in Test for Merkel's Coalition Voters in Germany's northernmost state are electing a new legislature which comes as an important popularity test for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition. About 2.24 million people are eligible to vote in Schleswig-Holstein state Sunday. Recent polls show the state's current coalition government of the conservative Christian Democrats and the pro-business Free Democrats as losing its majority to the center-left opposition parties. Analysts say the coalition's defeat would come as a blow to Merkel, whose federal government is made up of the same parties. The center-left Social Democrats seek to form a coalition government with the Greens and a small party representing the Danish minority in the state.