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The Federal Returning Officer expects at least 40 percent postal voters
6.00 a.m.:
In the federal election, according to the Federal Returning Officer, at least 40 percent of voters will vote in advance by letter, possibly more.
In the last election in 2017, the national average was 28.6 percent, a high since the introduction of the postal vote in 1957, as election manager Georg Thiel told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
This year you will "definitely get over 40 percent."
Thiel does not expect the corona pandemic to have any significant impact on overall voter turnout.
In the previous state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate in mid-March and in Saxony-Anhalt at the beginning of June, there were "no significant deviations in voter turnout."
According to him, election workers are not fundamentally obliged to submit a negative corona test or to prove a vaccination or recovery before they work at the polling station.
This is "only a requirement where there is no mask requirement."
In the vast majority of federal states, however, they would have to wear a mask, and hygiene and distance rules should generally also be observed.
There are therefore no nationwide uniform guidelines on how many voters and helpers are allowed to be in a polling station at the same time.
The postal vote
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The Federal Returning Officer has put together some information on postal voting.
The overview:
Apply for postal voting documents
Anyone who cannot or does not want to go to the polling station on Sunday can vote by letter.
On the back of the voting notification there is a form to apply for the postal voting documents.
You can also apply for the voting slip at the municipality of your main residence - in person or in writing, fax and e-mail are also possible.
The documents can be requested online from many municipalities.
The following information is required to receive the postal voting documents: Family name, first name, date of birth and home address (street, house number, postcode, city).
Anyone who applies for someone else must submit a written power of attorney.
In this case, an application is only possible in person or in writing, but not electronically.
Eligible voters with disabilities can have someone else help them with the application.
Expand application deadlines area
You should apply for a voting slip as early as possible.
But the ticket can be applied for no later than 6 p.m. on Friday before election day.
In special exceptional cases, a voting slip can be applied for up to 3 p.m. on the day of the election, for example if one falls ill at short notice and cannot go to the voting room or only with unreasonable difficulties.
Expand letter dialing area and position
If those eligible to vote collect their postal voting documents personally from the competent authority of the municipal authority, they can cast their vote directly on site.
As in the polling station, it must be ensured that the voting slip can be filled out and placed in the voting slip envelope without being observed.
Expand mail dialing area abroad
You can also vote by postal vote if you live abroad.
However, the election letter must then be sufficiently franked.
In addition, the election letter must be sent early enough so that it is available by 6 p.m. on election Sunday at the latest at the point indicated on the election letter.
Voting letters should be sent by airmail, for this you need an airmail sticker (Priority / Prioritaire).
Expand the electoral letter documents area
Voting slip: This must be personally signed by the employee of the municipal authority commissioned with the issue and provided with the official seal.
The seal can be imprinted.
If the voting slip is created automatically, the signature may be missing;
instead, the name of the employee responsible can be printed on it.
Official ballot
Official ballot envelope (blue)
Official election envelope (red): This must include the full address to which the election letter must be sent.
It also contains the name of the municipality's issuing office and voting slip number or electoral district.
Detailed information sheet: It contains all the important information about postal voting and explains them with pictures.
Expand the area Missing postal voting documents
If the municipal authorities can be credibly assured that the voting slip has not been received, a new voting slip can be issued by 12 noon on the Saturday before the elections.
Expand the area Filling out the postal voting documents
You cross one or both votes (first and / or second vote) personally and unobserved on the ballot, then put the ballot in the blue envelope (ballot envelope) and tape it shut.
Then you have to sign the "Insurance on oath instead of postal vote" printed on the ballot paper and enter the date.
Then you put the ballot paper together with the blue ballot envelope in the red ballot envelope.
Finally, you seal the red polling envelope and send it to the post office without postage within Germany (sufficient postage outside Germany) or hand it in personally.
Expand the shipping deadlines area
The ballot letter must be available by 6 p.m. on the Sunday of the election at the latest, since then the election will end and the counting of the votes will begin.
Ballot letters received later can no longer be taken into account when counting votes.
If you put the election letter in the post, you should send it off no later than the third working day before the election to ensure that it arrives on time.
Voting secrecy area for ballot letters
The unopened voting letters are collected and kept under lock and key. On election day, they are distributed to the responsible postal voting boards. Each postal voting board consists of five to nine people who control each other. At least five members must be present when the votes are counted. Each postal voting room is freely accessible to the public. Anyone who wants to can watch the work of the postal voting board. The red ballot papers will be opened from around 3 p.m. on election day. Then it is checked whether the ballot paper is valid. Contested ballot letters are packed and kept until they are destroyed.
Sealed, unobjectionable ballot envelopes and ballot papers are separated from each other at this point and sealed ballot envelopes are thrown into the ballot box so that nobody can understand who voted and how.
At the end of the voting period, the postal voting board opens the ballot box.
The ballot papers are taken from the ballot envelopes and the votes are counted publicly as in the ballot box.
Expand the area Counting of ballot papers
Postal voting boards within the constituency count the postal voting documents that have been received and checked by then on election day after 6 p.m.
Expand Share of Postal Selector Area
Experts expect more postal voters than ever before in this federal election.
In Hamburg, around 534,000 eligible voters decided to vote by post shortly before election day, around 40 percent of those eligible to vote.
With the voting decision, more than 345,000 voting letters have already been received by the district election officers, which corresponds to a rate of around 65 percent.
In Munich, according to the »Süddeutscher Zeitung«, more than half of those eligible to vote applied for postal ballot papers, around 477,000.
According to a survey by “Welt am Sonntag”, the number of postal voting documents requested has already doubled in some large cities.
According to the newspaper, the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Bremen sent twice as many postal voting documents as at the same time before the last federal election.
According to »Welt«, the percentage of postal voters in Rhineland-Palatinate is already 41 percent.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, 29.5 percent of those eligible to vote have so far applied for voting by letter.
According to Saarländischer Rundfunk, many municipalities assume that 50 percent of voters vote by letter.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, around 30 percent of those eligible to vote had applied for postal voting documents by September 6th.
Return area of the postal voting flaps
So far there is only sporadic information here.
According to WDR, 340,000 people eligible to vote applied for postal voting documents in Cologne, of which 228,000 have already been returned.
In Düsseldorf, according to the city, 170,000 citizens requested the documents by Thursday.
That is more than 40 percent of all eligible voters.
110,000 people have already sent back the ballot papers.
Söder against junior partnership in new government
4.20 a.m.:
CSU boss and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder expects a blink of an eye final in the federal election on Sunday.
As he explained to the Düsseldorf »Rheinische Post« according to a preliminary report, the CSU boss is critical of a junior partnership or possible formation of a government from second place: »The fact is: Either the Union is ahead, then it can form a government.
Or the SPD, then they will do everything to set up a government without us.
I am convinced of that. ”According to Söder, a new edition of the GroKo would be more of a mere“ business as usual ”:“ In addition to the political waves of the last few weeks, there is a desire for some fundamental renewals in society after 16 years. ”
Last TV debate before the election
0.00 a.m.
Shortly before the general election, the top candidates of all seven parties represented in the Bundestag had one last exchange of blows on ARD and ZDF.
You can read here how the politicians have done.
mfh / AFP / dpa