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Article 28
 

Issue of Polling Cards

(1) Polling cards must not be issued prior to the approval of nominations by the Land and District Electoral Committees in accordance with Articles 26 and 28 of the Law.

(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.

(3) Where the application does not indicate that the elector wishes to vote before an Electoral Board, the following shall be appended to the polling card:

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

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

3. an official postal ballot envelope in accordance with the specimen at Annex 11, bearing the full address to which the ballot letter is to be sent, as well as the designation of the local authority of the commune which has issued the polling card (issuing office) and the polling card number or polling district, and

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

The person eligible to vote may still request the postal ballot documents until 3 p.m. on election day at the latest.

(4) The polling card and postal ballot documents may only be handed over to someone other than the person eligible to vote in person in the case of an onset of sudden illness (Article 27 (4), sentence 3), if the authorization to take receipt of the documents is certified by the submission of a written authority and if it is too late for the documents to be posted or delivered officially. Outgoing mail shall be stamped by the local authority. The local authority of the commune 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 per-sonally from the local authority of the commune, 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 voting envelope without being observed.

(6) The local authority shall maintain a polling card register in which the cases specified in Article 25 (1) and in Paragraph 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 Article 25 (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 sentences 1 to 3 above.

(7) The local authority of the commune shall immediately notify the Federal Returning Of-ficer of any polling card issued pursuant to Article 25 (2) to a person eligible to vote specified in Article 12 (2), sentence 1, nos. 2 and 3 of the Law. 18 (5), sentences 5 and 6 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 District Returning Officer, who shall advise all Electoral Boards in the constituency of the invalidity of the polling card. In the cases specified in Article 39 (5) of the Law, 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 commune, if the authority itself, another local authority or the district administration is not responsible for administering the postal ballot, shall send the District Returning Officer, by the quickest means available, the register specified in Paragraph 8, sentence 2 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 Article 7 (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 sentence 1 to the administering authority.

(10) Lost polling cards shall not be replaced. If a person eligible to vote gives a substanti-ated assurance 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; Paragraph 8, sentences 1 to 3 and Paragraph 9 shall apply as appropriate.