Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release May 28, 2009
Active commitment: some 630,000 voluntary workers assist in the European election
WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, about 630,000 voluntary workers will contribute on an honorary basis to the success of the European election in Germany on 7 June 2009. They form the basis of the people organising the election themselves and thus belong to the most important pillars of the electoral procedure.
At the forthcoming European election there will be approximately 80,000 polling districts for ballot box voting and some 10,000 districts for postal voting. The boundaries of the polling districts have been set by the municipalities so as to make it as easy as possible for voters to get to the polling stations. At each polling station and for each postal voting district there will be an electoral board consisting of an electoral officer, his or her deputy and three to seven assessors. Some large cities require up to 10,000 voluntary workers to conduct the European election, Berlin needs as many as 18,000.
The electoral board organises and supervises the proper conduct of the election and, where necessary, explains the election regulations to the citizens. After the polling station has been closed, the board counts the votes and reports the result to the district returning officer or the urban district returning officer. They determine the provisional election result for the administrative district or the city from the first releases and report their result to the Land returning officer. As they come in, the Land returning officer, in turn, instantly reports the results for administrative districts and cities to the Federal Returning Officer, who establishes the provisional result for all of Germany from these figures.
The Federal Returning Officer asks the citizens to show responsibility and be available for the tasks of a voluntary worker. He at the same time expresses his sincere thanks to all who will work on a voluntary basis in the electoral boards on 7 June 2009, thus doing a great service to our democracy and, consequently, to all of us.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
email: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de