(1) Polling cards may not be issued prior to the admission of the 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 pre-printed on the polling card. If the polling card is produced by means of automated equipment, there may be no signature, in derogation from the first sentence; instead, the name of the official in charge may be shown in printed form.
(3) The polling card must be accompanied by
district have been entered beforehand by the issuing office, and
The first sentence does not apply in the cases specified in section 29 subsection (1).
(4) The polling card and postal ballot documents are externally marked as official election documents and are sent or officially delivered to the residential address of the eligible voter unless the application specifies a different address or that the documents are to be collected. If dispatch to another address has been requested in one of the ways described in section 27 subsection (1), second sentence, a notice is additionally sent to the residential address when the postal ballot documents are dispatched. The municipal authority must pay the postage on outgoing mail. The municipal authority sends the polling card and postal ballot documents to the eligible voter by air mail if it is clear from the application that the voter wishes to vote from an area outside Europe or if this appears necessary for other reasons.
32
(5) If the eligible voter collects the polling card and postal ballot documents in person from the municipal authority, he or she should be given the opportunity to cast his or her postal vote directly on site. It is important to ensure that the ballot paper can be marked and placed in the ballot paper envelope in secret. The polling card and postal ballot documents may only be handed over personally to someone other than the eligible voter
if this person can present written authorisation proving that he or she is authorised to take receipt of the documents. Section 27 subsection (1), fourth sentence, applies accordingly. The written authorisation may only be used if the authorised person represents not more than four eligible voters; the authorised person must confirm this in writing to the municipal authority before he or she takes receipt of the documents. The authorised
person must identify himself or herself upon request.
(6) The municipal authority keeps a polling card register of the issued polling cards in which the cases specified in section 25 subsection (1) and subsection (2) are recorded separately. The register is kept as a list or as a collection of the carbon copies of the polling cards. The polling card bears the number under which the polling card is recorded in the polling card register and the number under which the eligible voter is listed in the electoral register, or the name of the envisaged polling district. Where eligible voters are not listed in the electoral register, a note is 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 eligible voter is assigned. If further polling cards are issued after closure of the electoral register, a special register must be kept for such cards in accordance with the first to third sentences.
(7) The municipal authority must notify the Federal Returning Officer without delay of any polling card issued pursuant to section 25 subsection (2) to a person eligible to vote as per section 12 subsection (2), first sentence, of the Federal Elections Act. Section 18 subsection (5a), fourth and fifth sentences, apply accordingly.
(8) If an eligible voter who has already received a polling card is removed from the electoral register, the polling card must be declared invalid. The municipal authority keeps a register of such occurrences, recording in it the name of the eligible voter and the number of the invalid polling card; it must amend the polling card register. The municipal authority
33
informs the Constituency Returning Officer, who notifies 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 must be made in the polling card register and in the register of polling cards that have been declared invalid, stating that the vote of an eligible voter who has already participated in the postal ballot is not invalid.
(9) If the municipal authority itself, another municipal authority or the administrative authority of the district is not responsible for conducting the postal ballot, the municipal authority sends the Constituency Returning Officer, by the quickest means available, the register specified in subsection (8), second sentence, and addenda to that register, or a notification that no polling cards have been declared invalid, in good time for them to arrive on the morning of election day at the latest. If another municipal authority has been charged pursuant to section 7 number (3) with conducting the postal ballot, or if the administrative authority of the district bears that responsibility, the municipal authority must send the register and the addenda or a notification as described in the first sentence to the municipal authority in charge or to the administrative authority of the district.
(10) If a person eligible to vote credibly asserts that he or she did not receive the polling card he or she applied for or has lost it, he or she may be issued a new polling card until 12 noon on the day before the election; subsection (8), first to third sentences, and subsection (9) apply accordingly.
