Constituency or district returning officer

In Bundestag elections, the electoral bodies are the Federal Returning Officer and the Federal Electoral Committee at federal level, the Land returning officers and Land electoral committees at Land level, the constituency returning officers and constituency electoral committees at constituency level, and the electoral officers and electoral boards at polling district level.

The constituency returning officers and their deputies are appointed prior to each election by the Land government or the agency designated by the Land government. The Land returning officer may appoint a single constituency returning officer for several neighbouring constituencies.

The duties of constituency returning officers include:

• collaborate on the delimitation of polling districts,
• set up the constituency electoral committee and chair the committee,
• call for the submission of constituency nominations and receive and pre-examine constituency nominations as well as supporting signatures, where applicable,
• exercise the right to appeal against the admission or rejection of constituency nominations by the constituency electoral committee,
• publish the admitted constituency nominations,
• establish the fulfilment of the condition specifying that a Land list of a party must have been admitted for the party to be able to make a constituency nomination in the Land (including Land lists that were only admitted after the meeting of the Land electoral committee or Federal Electoral Committee to address appeals),
• decide on appeals against a decision taken by the municipal authority regarding the correctness of the electoral register or the denial of a polling card,
• procure the ballot papers,
• determine the provisional election result for the constituency and report the result to the Land returning officer,
• announce the final election result for the constituency.

Further duties related to the postal ballot (if organised by the constituency returning officer):

• appoint postal ballot boards,
• register and cross-check incoming postal ballot return letters,
• add the result of the election by postal ballot to the result of the election in the constituency.

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In European elections, the electoral bodies are the Federal Returning Officer and the Federal Electoral Committee at federal level, the Land returning officers and Land electoral committees at Land level, the district returning officers and district electoral committees at district level, or the town returning officers and town electoral committees in the case of towns not attached to an administrative district, and the electoral officers and electoral boards at polling district level.

The district and town returning officers and their deputies are appointed prior to each election by the Land government or the agency designated by the Land government.

The duties of district and town returning officers include:

• establish polling districts that extend beyond the boundaries of a single municipality,
• appoint the members of the district or town electoral committee and chair the committee,
• publish the conditions which Union citizens living in the Federal Republic of Germany have to meet if they wish to elect German members of the European Parliament,
• exercise the right to file a complaint about the decision of the municipal authority concerning objections to the voters’ register and against the withholding of polling cards,
• determine the provisional election result in the district or town not attached to an administrative district and report it to the Land returning officer,
• process the postal ballot return letters, determine the postal ballot result,
• announce the final election result in the administrative district or town not attached to an administrative district.

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