Home > 1.3.2.3 Counting procedures/validity of ballots > GERMANY - Federal Electoral Regulations
 
 
 
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Section 61
 

Voting in Special Polling Districts



(1) Permission to vote in special polling districts (Section 13) shall be granted to any person eligible to vote present in the establishment who has a polling card valid for the constituency.


(2) It is permissible to appoint different people as Electoral Board members for the different parts of a special polling district.


(3) The local authority of the municipality shall designate a suitable polling station in consultation with the management of the establishment. Different polling stations may be designated for the different parts of a special polling district. The local authority shall set up the polling station.


(4) The local authority shall stipulate the polling hours for the special polling district in consultation with the management of the establishment within the general polling hours and in line with requirements.


(5) The management of the establishment shall provide the persons eligible to vote with details of the polling station and polling hours on the day before the election and advise them of the possibility of voting in accordance with subsection (6) below.


(6) The Electoral Officer or his or her deputy and two Board members may also go to the rooms and beds of patients, taking with them a locked ballot box and the requisite ballot papers. There they shall take receipt of the polling cards and proceed in accordance with Sections 59 and 56 subsections (4) to (8). In so doing, they must also afford bedridden voters the opportunity to mark and fold their ballot paper without being observed. The Electoral Officer or his or her deputy shall advise voters who wish to avail themselves of another person's assistance in casting their vote that they may also use the services of a member of the Electoral Board designated by the voter as a helper. Upon completion of voting, the locked ballot box and the polling cards are to be taken to the polling station of the special polling district immediately. The ballot box shall be kept there, locked, under the supervision of the Electoral Board until the completion of general voting. Its contents shall then be mixed with the contents of the general ballot box and counted together with the other votes cast in the special polling district. The process shall be minuted in the election record.


(7) The public character of the poll as well as of the establishment and declaration of the election result is to be ensured, if possible, through the presence of other persons eligible to vote.
(8) The management of the establishment must in particular comply with Section 30 subsection (1) of the Infection Protection Act for patients with contagious diseases.
(9) The result of the poll in the special polling district must not be established before the end of general polling hours.
(10) In all other respects, the general provisions shall apply.