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Section 18
 

Procedure for Registration in the Voters’ Register on Request



(1) The application for registration in the voters’ register must be made in writing to the competent local authority of the municipality not later than the twentyfirst day before the election. It must contain the surname, the forenames, the date of birth and the exact address of the person eligible to vote. Except in the cases specified in subsection (5), collective applications shall be permissible; they must bear the personal handwritten signatures of all the listed persons. A person with disabilities who is eligible to vote may to this end avail himself or herself of another person's assistance. Section 57 shall apply as appropriate.


(2) (Repealed)


(3) In the cases specified in Section 16 subsection (2) number 1 persons eligible to vote are to be listed until election day in the voters’ register of the municipality which is responsible pursuant to Section 17 subsection (2) number 2 even if they have reregis-tered with another registration authority in the electoral area after the qualifying date. They must be informed accordingly upon registration.


(4) (Repealed)


(5) In the cases specified in Section 16 subsection (2) number 2 the person eligible to vote must, when applying for registration in the voters’ register as per Annex 2, provide the local authority of the municipality certification of his or her enfranchisement by declaring in lieu of an oath that he or she has not applied for registration in the voters’ register in any other municipality in the electoral area. Requests for application forms and notes for applicants may be submitted to the diplomatic and full-time consular missions of the Federal Republic of Germany abroad, to the Federal Returning Officer and to the Constituency Returning Officers. If there be doubt about the information provided by the applicant, the local authority must investigate the matter immediately. The Federal Re-turning Officer must be notified immediately of the registration in the voters’ register through the transmission of the duplicate copy of the application as per Annex 2, on which the registration shall be recorded. If the Federal Returning Officer receives notification from more than one local authority of the registration of the same applicant in the voters’ register, he or she shall immediately contact any local authority whose notifica-tion of registration in the voters’ register is received after the first notification to inform it of the registration of the person eligible to vote in the voters’ register of the first notifying municipality. Any local authority receiving such information from the Federal Returning Officer must delete the person concerned from the voters’ register and inform him or her thereof.


(6) If a person eligible to vote as defined by Section 12 subsection (2), first sentence, of the Federal Elections Act returns to the electoral area and registers there in respect of a domicile after the qualifying date as specified by Section 16 subsection (1) but before the beginning of the period in which the voters’ register as defined by Section 17 subsec-tion (1), first sentence, of the Federal Elections Act may be inspected, he or she shall be registered in the voters’ register of the new place of residence only after filing an application as per Annex 1, thus providing evidence to the municipal authority of his or her eli-gibility to vote by affirmation in lieu of an oath and declaring that he or she has not sub-mitted any other application for entry in the voters’ register. The person eligible to vote is to be advised thereof at the time of application. The local authority of the municipality must inform the Federal Returning Officer immediately by submitting the duplicate of the application as per Annex 1 whenever such a person eligible to vote has been registered in the voters’ register, with the duplicate bearing a note that the person has been entered into the voters’ register. Subsection (5), fifth and sixth sentences, shall apply as appro-priate.