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Article 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 commune not later than the twenty-first day before the election. It must contain the surname, forenames, date of birth and exact address of the person eligible to vote. Except in the cases specified in Paragraph 5, collective applications shall be permissible; they must bear the personal handwritten signatures of all the listed persons. A person eligible to vote who is disabled may to this end avail himself or herself of another person's assistance. Article 57 shall apply as appropriate.

(2) (Deleted)

(3) In the cases specified in Article 16 (2), no. 1, persons eligible to vote are to be listed until election day in the voters' register of the commune which is responsible pursuant to Article 17 (2), no. 2 even if they have reregistered with another registration authority in the electoral area after the qualifying date. They must be informed accordingly upon registration.

(4) In the cases specified in Article 16 (2), no. (2), subparagraph (a), persons eligible to vote who are not to be registered in the voters' register of a neighboring commune or who belong to the staff of diplomatic or consular missions of the Federal Republic of Germany must submit their applications through the commune in which the highest authority responsible for the public employees in question has its seat. That commune must certify that the applicant is eligible to vote pursuant to Article 12 of the Law, is not disqualified from voting pursuant to Article 13 of the Law and is not to be entered by official order in the voters' register pursuant to Article 16 (1), no. 1.

(5) In the cases specified in Article 16 (2), no. 2, subparagraph (b), the person eligible to vote must, when applying for registration in the voters' register as per Annex 2, provide the local authority of the commune 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 commune in the electoral area. Requests for application forms and notes for applicants may be submitted to the diplomatic and fulltime consular missions of the Federal Republic of Germany abroad, to the Federal Returning Officer and to the District Returning Officers. If there be doubt about the information provided by the applicant, the local authority must investigate the matter immediately. The Federal Returning 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 notification 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 commune. 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 specified in Article 12 (2), sentence 1, no. 2 or 3 of the Law returns to the electoral area and registers there in respect of a domicile after the qualifying date but before the beginning of the period in which the voters' register is on public display, he or she shall only be registered in the voters' register of the new place of residence on application and only if he or she has not submitted an application pursuant to Paragraph 5 above and has affirmed this to the local authority. The person eligible to vote is to be advised thereof at the time of application. The local authority of the commune must inform the Federal Returning Officer immediately whenever such a person eligible to vote is registered in the voters' register. Paragraph 5, sentences 5 and 6 shall apply as appropriate.