Postal voting has long been recognised and accepted in Germany. § 14 of the Federal Law on Elections (“Bundeswahlgesetz”) recognises postal voting as equivalent to traditional ballots. The procedure for postal voting is regulated in § 36 of the law in conjunction with the Federal Electoral Code (§ 25). The electoral authorities must first provide the elector with an “electoral card” (“Wahlschein”) which enables him or her to take advantage of postal voting. However, there are specific requirements which need to be met for postal voting. Firstly, the elector must lodge a special application for a ballot paper for postal voting. Secondly, people may also be eligible for postal voting who have transferred their residence to another constituency and who have not yet been entered in the electoral register of the new constituency or people who for professional reasons or as a consequence of an illness, old age, physical disability or another bodily constitution cannot go to the polling booth or can only go there whilst facing difficulties which make it impossible to expect them to go to the polls. Finally those who are eligible to vote and live outside the federal territory and who must be entered in an electoral register upon application can obtain the relevant ballot paper. The elector must then send his or her ballot paper in a special envelope, ensuring that the letter reaches the electoral commission by 6pm at the latest on election day. On the electoral card, the elector must make a solemn undertaking to the Chair of the constituency’s electoral commission, stating that he or she has personally filled in the ballot slip. Under Article 156 ofthe German Criminal Code, anyone making a false declaration is liable to a maximum of three years’ imprisonment or a fine.