Casting of a vote

(1) Each voter has to first prove his or her identity (§ 67 and § 70, para 1). If they feature on the electoral roll, the returning officer has to present them with an official ballot paper envelope and a ballot paper. In the case of a voter voting with a voting card, the returning officer has to open the envelope presented by the voter concerned and present them with the official ballot paper contained in it, together with the sealable ballot paper envelope (§ 39, para 4). When the voter concerned is from the regional constituency where the polling station is situated, the returning officer has to issue them with an empty ballot paper envelope instead of the sealable ballot paper envelope, which has to be destroyed. The returning officer has to make all voters with voting cards aware of the fact that in casting their vote they have to use the ballot papers, issued to them at the time of the issuing of the voting card. If the voter concerned is no longer in possession of this ballot paper, they will be issued with an official ballot paper from the regional constituency (§ 75) where the polling station is situated, if their voting card carries the sign of the same regional constituency. When the voter voting with a voting card in question is from another regional constituency, he or she will be issued with an empty ballot paper (§ 76). The returning officer has to enter the number of the respective provincial constituency and the letter of the respective regional constituency marked on the voting card in the empty ballot paper, before presenting it to the voter concerned. When a voter voting with a voting card is no longer in possession of a sealable ballot paper envelope, a new sealable envelope from their respective provincial constituency is to be issued to them.

(2) The returning officer has to direct each voter to the polling booth. There, the voter fills in the official ballot paper, puts it in the envelope, comes out of the polling booth and presents the envelope to the returning officer. The returning officer puts the unopened ballot paper envelope into the ballot box. If the ballot paper envelope is from a voter voting with a voting card who is not entered as being entitled to vote in a municipality of the regional constituency, the voter voting with a voting card has to seal the ballot paper envelope before presenting it to the returning officer.

(3) When a voter makes a mistake in the process of filling out the ballot paper, they have to be issued with a new one on their request. In this case, the regulations set out in para 1 are to be applied. The voter concerned has to tear up in the presence of the elections officials the ballot paper initially presented to them, so as to make it unsuitable, and take it with them for the sake of maintaining the secrecy of the vote.

(4) The issuing of a second ballot paper has to always be noted in the vote record.

(5) The use of an electronic vote record is permitted under the following circumstances:

1. The form of the electronic vote record has to correspond with the sample contained in attachment 5.

2. The data related to elegible voters may only be kept on an external data drive, which has to be destroyed after the closing of the election procedure.

3. As soon as one page of the electronic vote record has been completely filled out, a paper print of this page has to be effected.

4. The printed pages of the electronic vote record shall be considered as the vote record enclosed to the protocoll. 

5. The members of the election authority, the election wittnesses, the persons of trust/representatives as well as the accredited persons pursuant to §20a para 3 are entitled to look into the electronic vote record any time.

6. In case of a disruption of the electronic devices used for the electronic vote record, the election process has to be paused. Those names of eligible voters not listed on the previous print-outs shall be reconstructed using the electoral roll and are to be registered on paper (see attachment 5 for sample).
Afterwards, the voting process is to be continued without recurrence to the electronic vote record.