Home > 1.3.2.3 Counting procedures/validity of ballots > GERMANY - Federal Electoral Regulations
 
 
 
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Section 28
 

Issue of Polling Cards



(1) Polling cards must not be issued prior to the approval of nominations by the Land and Constituency Electoral Committees in accordance with Sections 26 and 28 of the Federal Elections Act.


(2) The polling card must be signed personally by the official in charge of issuing it and must bear the official seal. The official seal may be embossed. If the polling card is pro-duced by means of automated facilities, there may be no signature, in derogation of sen-tence 1; instead, the name of the official in charge may be embossed.


(3) The following shall be appended to the polling card:


1. an official ballot paper for the constituency in accordance with the specimen at An-nex 26,


2. an official ballot paper envelope in accordance with the specimen at Annex 10,


3. an official return envelope in accordance with the specimen at Annex 11, bearing the full address to which the ballot letter is to be sent, (recipient of the postal ballot letter in accordance with Section 66 subsection (2)), as well as the designation of the local authority of the municipality which has issued the polling card (issuing office) and the polling card number or polling district entered beforehand by the issu-ing office, and


4. an information leaflet for postal voters in accordance with the specimen at Annex 12.


The first sentence shall not apply in the cases specified in Section 29 subsection (1).


(4) The polling card and postal ballot documents shall be sent or officially delivered to the place of residence of the person eligible to vote provided that the application does not contain another address or provides for the documents to be collected. If dispatch to another address has been applied for in a form pursuant to Section 27 subsection (1),second sentence, the sending of the postal ballot documents shall include the dispatch of a notice to the place of residence. Outgoing mail shall be stamped by the local authority. The local authority of the municipality shall send the polling card and postal ballot documents to the person eligible to vote by air mail if the application reveals that he or she wishes to vote from an area outside Europe or if this otherwise appears necessary.


(5) If the person eligible to vote collects the polling card and postal ballot documents personally from the local authority of the municipality, he or she should be given the opportunity to cast his or her postal vote there and then. Care must be taken to ensure that the voter can mark the ballot paper and place it in the ballot paper envelope without be-ing observed. The polling card and postal ballot documents may only be handed over to someone other than the person eligible to vote in person if the authorization to take re-ceipt of the documents is certified by the submission of a written authority. Section 27 subsection (1), forth sentence, shall apply as appropriate. The authority may be used only if the person authorized represents not more than four persons entitled to vote; this must be confirmed in writing by the person authorized before he or she takes receipt of the documents. The person authorized must identify himself or herself upon request.


(6) The local authority shall maintain a polling card register in which the cases speci-fied in Section 25 subsection (1) and in subsection (2) are recorded separately. The register shall be kept as a list or as a collection of the carbon copies of the polling cards. The number under which the polling card is recorded in the polling card register as well as the number under which the person eligible to vote is registered in the voters’ register or the name of the envisaged polling district shall be entered on the polling card. Where voters are not registered in the voters’ register, a note shall be made on the polling card, confirming that the card has been issued under Section 25 subsection (2) and stating the polling district to which the person eligible to vote will be assigned. If further polling cards are issued after closure of the voters’ register, a special register shall be kept for such cards in accordance with the first to third sentences above.


(7) The local authority of the municipality shall immediately notify the Federal Returning Officer of any polling card issued pursuant to Section 25 subsection (2) to a person eligible to vote specified in Section 12 subsection (2), first sentence, of the Federal Elections Act. Section 18 subsection (5), fifth and sixth sentences, shall apply as appropriate.


(8) If a person eligible to vote who has already received a polling card is deleted from the voters’ register, the polling card must be declared invalid. The local authority shall keep a register of such occurrences, recording in it the name of the person eligible to vote and the number of the invalidated polling card; it must amend the polling card register. The local authority shall inform the Constituency Returning Officer, who shall advise all Electoral Boards in the constituency of the invalidity of the polling card. In the cases specified in Section 39 subsection (5) of the Federal Elections Act, a suitable entry shall be made in the polling card register and in the register of invalidated polling cards, stating that the vote of a person eligible to vote who has already participated in the postal ballot is not invalid.


(9) After closure of the voters’ register, the local authority of the municipality, if the authority itself, another local authority or the district administration is not responsible for administering the postal ballot, shall send the Constituency Returning Officer, by the quickest means available, the register specified in subsection (8), second sentence, and addenda to that register, or a notice that no polling cards have been invalidated, in good enough time for them to be received on the morning of election day at the latest. If another local authority has been charged pursuant to Section 7 subsection (3) to administer the postal ballot, or if the district administration bears that responsibility, the local authority must send the register and the addenda or a notice as described in the first sentence to the administering authority.


(10) Lost polling cards shall not be replaced. If a person eligible to vote gives a substan-tiated affirmation that he or she did not receive the polling card applied for, a new polling card may be issued to such a person until 12 noon on the day before the election; subsection (8), first to third sentences, and subsection (9) shall apply as appropriate.