Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release September 25, 2009
WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, representative electoral statistics will be compiled for the election to the 17th Bundestag on 27 September 2009 as for former Bundestag elections. Voter turnout and the casting of votes by age, sex and Länder will be determined in a good 2,900 polling districts selected at random. The secrecy of the ballot is ensured for the individual voters in those polling districts, too. First results of the representative electoral statistics for the 2009 Bundestag election are expected to become available in December 2009.
Representative electoral statistics make it possible to analyse the voting behaviour of men and women, age-specific differences, and the structure of voters and non-voters in the territory of the Federal Republic and in the Länder at Bundestag and European elections. There is great public interest in the results because this is the only way to obtain a reliable picture of various population groups in Germany taking part in political life.
As the term implies, representative electoral statistics will not be compiled in all polling districts. Instead, a random sample of approximately 2,600 will be drawn from the total of about 80,000 ballot box districts, and just under 350 postal ballot districts will be selected at random from the total of some 10,000 by means of a mathematical-statistical procedure. The ballot papers used in those polling districts will have distinctive characteristics printed on them for women and men by five age groups. To determine the voter turnout, an analysis will also be made of registered voters and persons who have actually cast their votes, based on the voters’ registers and broken down by sex and ten age groups.
The secrecy of the ballot is safeguarded by the provisions of the Law on Electoral Statistics: The ballot papers will not bear any personal data but will only have anonymous distinctive characteristics printed on them for sex and age group. The counting of the ballot papers and the evaluation of the voters’ registers will be performed strictly separate in organisational terms. Also, minimum sizes have been defined for the selected polling districts: Ballot box districts must comprise at least 400 registered voters for the 2009 Bundestag election and postal ballot districts must have had at least 400 voters at the last Bundestag election of 2005. Finally, results must not be published for single polling districts selected.
More detailed information on how representative electoral statistics are compiled for the 2009 Bundestag election is available on the website of the Federal Returning Officer.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de