For first forecasts: ARD asked Pöckinger on election Sunday

Who will Germany vote on Sunday?

Who has a chance at the Chancellery?

Who wins, who loses?

Thanks to voter surveys, the first forecasts can be published when the polling stations close at 6 p.m.

Pöcking-Nord is one of several hundred voting districts in Germany that serve as the basis for the forecasts in the ARD.

Pöcking

- At exactly 6 p.m. on Sunday the polling stations also close in the Starnberg district.

The first trends and forecasts for the outcome of the federal election will be available immediately afterwards.

The Institute for Election and Political Research Infratest dimap is responsible for the surveys and projections in the ARD.

It will be on site in 560 voting districts across Germany on Sunday and interview the voters - including in Pöcking.

"There was already a polling of voters in the community during the 2017 federal election," says Günther Drexler from the Pöckinger Ordnungs- und Gewerbeamt.

"That was done quietly and secretly back then." This year, too, the voting district 2 Pöcking Nord (Pöcking primary school / gymnasium) serves as the basis for the forecasts.

Drexler does not know why exactly this district in the district was selected.

Infratest dimap also keeps a low profile when it comes to the exact parameters for the selection.

“The selection of the electoral districts is based on a complex procedure,” writes the institute in response to an inquiry from Starnberger Merkurs.

The decisive factor is how well the entire sample depicts the results and structures in the electoral area.

"I can imagine that the district is very representative," says Drexler.

"It's a great experience for us, and you get a good insight into how the projections work."

Infratest dimap approached Pöcking three months ago

Infratest dimap approached the community three months ago. “We have been in lively contact ever since,” says Drexler. At the beginning of the week, a last personal conversation took place before the federal election between the community employee and Liesel König von Infratest, who is responsible for the electoral district in Pöcking. König has been working for Infratest dimap on election day for 20 years. On Sunday, the pensioner will stand at the exit of the Pöckinger gymnasium and speak to the voters for the voluntary survey.

“Most of the citizens also participate,” says König. “It's all anonymous.” After the voters have put their two crosses for the first and second vote on a ballot paper and thrown them into a black urn with the ARD logo, they can fill out a questionnaire. “It's about age, profession, gender, school leaving certificate, which party you voted for in the last election and which coalition you want,” explains König. At regular intervals she counts out ballot papers and questionnaires and forwards the results by phone to the ARD capital studio in Berlin - and that even before 6 p.m. for the first trend, which is published when the polling stations are closed. "In Berlin, new information arrives every minute from all the electoral districts," Liesel König said.

In Pöcking Nord there are 1350 voters this year.

More than half of the voters there applied for postal votes - which of course can also have an impact on the projections.

“That will have an impact somehow,” says Liesel König.

“In the course of the night the numbers will change again.

But I think that a trend will already be visible in the forecasts. "

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