The FW entered the Bavarian state election in 1998 for the first time and got 3.7% of the vote. In the 2003 election, its voter share slightly increased to 4.0%. Despite this gain the FW's missed entry into the state parliament due to the five percent threshold. In the 2008 state election, the Free Voters finally received 10.2% of the vote and 21 representatives in the state legislature, forming the parliament's third strongest force after the CDU and SDP. In the 2013 state election, the Free Voters defended its third place with 9.0% of the vote and 19 representatives from the party &lt;a href="Alliance%2090/The%20Greens"&gt;Alliance 90/The Greens&lt;/a&gt; Bavaria, which received 18 seats. Since 1998, the FW voter group has participated in (regional) parliament elections, which take place simultaneously with the state elections. Since there is no five percent threshold on this level, the Free Voters entered several (regional) parliaments. In the 1998 elections they won a total of 9 seats and in 2003 10 seats. In the 2008 and 2013 elections the Free Voters won 24 and 21 seats respectively.