On the Sunday of the election

The address of your polling station is shown on your voter’s notification. Many municipalities offer a hotline service on election day or provide a list of all polling stations on their website.

The Federal Returning Officer does not have any information on the assignment to polling stations. Such information can only be provided by the competent municipal authorities.

Your voter’s notification informs you if your polling station is barrier-free or not. It also lists phone numbers where further information is provided on barrier-free polling stations.

If your polling station should not be barrier-free and you require barrier-free access, you may apply for a polling card to be issued. With a polling card you may either vote by post or go to any other polling station of your administrative district or town.

See also: Postal ballot

You are not explicitly required by law to show your identification at the polling station. Those who are listed in a voters’ register or have a polling card may vote. However, the electoral board may ask you to present your identification. If you have forgotten your voter’s notification, you will have to show your identity card.

See also: Postal ballot

Yes, you have to enter the polling booth to vote. You also have to fold your ballot paper in the polling booth in such a way that your markings cannot be seen. Only then can the poll be conducted properly and the secrecy of the ballot ensured.

No, there may be only one person in the polling booth at a time. If several people cast their votes at the same time, ballot secrecy would be violated.

Voters who are unable to read or cannot mark and/or fold the ballot paper themselves due to a physical impairment are excepted from the obligation to go into the polling booth alone. They may ask another person to assist them.

See also: Helpers

There are no reservations about babies and toddlers being taken into the polling booth. It is essential that the secrecy of the ballot is maintained and the proper conduct of the election ensured.

Taking photos or videos in the polling booth is prohibited. The electoral board may also prevent people from photographing or videoing in the polling station outside the polling booth. This is to protect the secrecy of the ballot. No one should be able to find out who voted for whom. Ballot secrecy is violated when a ballot paper that has been marked and inserted into the ballot box can be allocated to a specific person. The ban also protects the freedom of election. Other voters are to be protected from any influence when they cast their vote.

If people fail to comply with these rules and take photos or videos of themselves or others while voting, the electoral board is obliged to intervene. It will then refuse to accept the ballot paper and may banish people from the polling station who threaten the secrecy of the ballot.

Voters who have been turned away by the electoral board must be given another ballot paper if they ask for one after they have destroyed the old ballot paper in the presence of an electoral board member.

There should be a writing implement in the polling booth. This may be a pencil, a coloured pencil, a copying pencil, an ink pen, a ballpoint pen, a felt-tip pen and the like. You may also use your own writing implement.

It is not a mistake to use a pencil to vote even though it is not indelible. The ballot paper cannot subsequently be manipulated because the votes are counted in public and the members of the electoral boards check each other.

A person entitled to vote abstains by not taking part in the poll. Then that person will not be included in the voter turnout. It is not possible to mark “abstention” on the ballot paper as there is no such box.

If a voter goes to the polls and does not mark the ballot paper at all or casts only one vote, the vote(s) not cast will be regarded as invalid. In such a case, the voter's participation in the poll is reflected by the voter turnout.

There may be a punched hole in the upper right corner of the ballot paper, the corner may be cut off etc. to help blind or visually impaired people to adjust a ballot paper template. This is an aid enabling them to read with their fingers the essential content of the ballot paper and cast their vote on their own and secretly at the polling station or by post. Ballot paper templates are provided upon request by the local associations of the blind, without the voter having to be a member of such an association.

See also: Information for blind and visually impaired people

These ballot papers have distinctive characteristics printed on them for women and men by six age groups. Such ballot papers are handed out in polling districts where representative electoral statistics are compiled. Data are collected on how persons entitled to vote of specific age groups have voted while the secrecy of the ballot is preserved.

See also: Representative electoral statistics

Votes cast in Bundestag elections are invalid if the ballot paper

• has not been officially produced under the authority of the government,
• does not bear any markings,
• is valid in another constituency,
• does not reveal the voter’s intent beyond any doubt,
• contains an addendum or reservation.

In the first two cases, both votes are invalid. In the third case, only the first vote is invalid if the ballot paper is valid for another constituency of the same Land. In cases four and five, only one or both votes may be invalid. This depends on the individual circumstances.

If only one vote has been marked on the ballot paper, the vote not cast is invalid.

In the postal ballot, both votes are invalid if the ballot paper was not inserted into the official ballot paper envelope or if the latter was empty. This also applies if a ballot paper envelope has been used which obviously differs from the other envelopes in a manner endangering the secrecy of the ballot or which contains a distinctly tangible object.

The order of the Land lists of parties (second vote) is determined by the number of second votes which each obtained in the last Bundestag election in the Land concerned. The remainder of the Land lists follow in the alphabetical order of the parties’ names.

The order of constituency nominations (first vote) is determined by the order of the corresponding Land lists. Other constituency nominations follow in the alphabetical order of the party names or their identifying names.

In that case you must not visit the polling station! You can only vote by post.

In the case of a sudden illness which has been confirmed, for instance, by a doctor and/or if you are quarantining you can apply for a postal vote to the electoral office of your municipality until 3 p.m. on election day. The postal voting documents can be collected at the electoral office by a person authorised to do so by a written proxy.

Yes, you can use your own writing implement – for example a fountain pen, ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen or pencil.