✶ Germany · Bundestag elections
Two crosses,
one ballot.
Registration is automatic, postal voting is open to everyone, and the ballot has two columns: a person on the left, a party on the right. The right-hand cross decides who governs.
Step by step
You are on the register automatically
Every German citizen aged 18 on polling day who has lived in Germany for at least three months is entered in the electoral register by the municipality where they are registered as resident (§§ 12, 17 BWahlG). There is nothing to sign up for.
The polling card arrives
At least three weeks before polling day the municipality sends a Wahlbenachrichtigung naming your polling station. If none comes, ask the town hall before the register closes.
Vote by post, or go in person
Anyone may vote by post, no reason needed: apply with the form on the card, online or at the town hall, until the Friday before polling day at 18:00. The red envelope must arrive by 18:00 on polling day.
Polling day: Sunday, 8:00 to 18:00
Bring an identity card or passport (and the polling card if you have it). In the booth, mark one cross in each column, fold the ballot and drop it in the box yourself.
The count is public
Anyone may watch the count in a polling station after 18:00 (§ 31 BWahlG). Results are passed up the line to the Bundeswahlleiterin, who announces the provisional result overnight.
Practice ballot · fictional names
Black and
blue.
The left column is printed in black, the right in blue. Tick as you like: the panel says how an electoral board would count it.
Stimmzettel
für die Wahl zum Deutschen Bundestag im Wahlkreis 000 Musterstadt
Sie haben 2 Stimmen
hier 1 Stimme for a constituency member · Erststimme
hier 1 Stimme for a party's Land list · Zweitstimme
decisive for the seats each party gets
How it would be counted
First vote: —
Second vote: —
Who can vote where
Not every election,
not the same age.
- BundestagGermans from 18
Citizens aged 18 on polling day (Art. 38(2) GG), resident in Germany for three months, or living abroad under the rules below.
- European ParliamentFrom 16
Germans and EU citizens living in Germany, from 16 since 2024.
- LandtagEach Land decides
Several Länder let 16-year-olds vote; EU citizens cannot vote for Landtage.
- MunicipalEU citizens too
Citizens of every EU country vote in local elections where they live (Art. 28(1) GG).
Germans abroad
Apply
every time.
Germans living abroad are not on any register: they must apply to the last German municipality they lived in (§ 12(2) BWahlG). They may vote if they lived in Germany for three months after turning 14, no more than 25 years ago, or if they are personally familiar with and affected by German politics. They vote by post.
Accessibility
Help
in the booth.
Voters who cannot mark the ballot may bring a helper; blind voters get a ballot template (Stimmzettelschablone) from the blind associations. Since 2019 nobody is excluded from voting because they have a legal guardian.