Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release April 13, 2010
Postal voters vote differently to ballot box voters at 2009 Bundestag Election
WIESBADEN – At the 2009 Bundestag Election there were some notable differences between postal voters and ballot box voters as regards the casting of second votes. As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, this is shown by an analysis of the voting patterns of postal and ballot box voters broken down by sex and age. The details are as follows:
- More second votes of ballot box voters compared with postal voters were obtained by the SPD (+3.2 percentage points) and DIE LINKE (+3.1 percentage points). All other parties received more support from postal voters, first of all the GRÜNE (+3.0 percentage points), followed by the CDU/CSU (+2.8 percentage points) and the FDP (+1.5 percentage points).
- The SPD achieved better results with the ballot box voters of all age groups, especially with those from the age of 60 (+4.1 percentage points compared with postal voters of the same age group).
- The Union of CDU and CSU achieved its best result of second votes in the age group from 60 years. Here it managed to get especially the women to the polls. With female postal voters the CDU/CSU obtained a share of votes amounting to 47.7%, 5.8 percentage points more than with male postal voters of the same age group. The Union also scored better than average with female ballot box voters from the age of 60 (44.4%), also in comparison with the male ballot box voters of that age group (+ 6.3 percentage points).
- The share of second votes cast for the FDP by postal voters was mostly just slightly higher than that of ballot box voters, the difference was largest with male postal voters between 45 and 59 years: +2.8 percentage points compared with the male ballot box voters of the same age group.
- In contrast to that, DIE LINKE scored better with the ballot box voters of both sexes. It achieved its best result with male ballot box voters aged 45 to 59 years (17.4%).
- The GRÜNE, however, obtained markedly higher percentage shares with postal voters, the highest with young female postal voters between 18 and 24 years (21.9%).
Due to the small number of postal voting districts selected, the voting patterns of postal voters and ballot box voters by sex and age could be analysed only for the whole territory of the Federal Republic.
In addition to data for ballot box and postal voters, the Federal Returning Officer now has more detailed figures relating to the PIRATEN, who stood for election in all Länder except Sachsen in the 2009 Bundestag Election and with 2.0% achieved the best result of all “other parties“. According to the information available from seven Länder, they fared best by far with male voters between 18 and 24 years and enlisted the support of many more men than women in all age groups.
The results are contained in the article entitled “Wahlverhalten bei der Bundestagswahl 2009 nach Geschlecht und Alter“ (Voting behaviour in the 2009 Bundestag Election by sex and age), which has been published in the current issue of the German-language journal “Wirtschaft und Statistik” 3/2010 of the Federal Statistical Office.
The article may be downloaded for free as a pdf file from the website of the Federal Returning Officer at:
www.bundeswahlleiter.de --> English --> 2009 Bundestag Election --> Publications
The complete issue of “Wirtschaft und Statistik” 3/2010 is available as a free pdf file or as a printed version at EUR 15.90 per copy from the Publication Service of the Federal Statistical Office at:
For further information please contact: Brigitte Gisart,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2573,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de