Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release June 4, 2009
2009 European Election: Voting right may be exercised only once
WIESBADEN – Equal voting rights for all – that is an essential feature of modern democracy. Therefore, the Federal Returning Officer points out that every person entitled to vote may cast only one vote in the 2009 European Election. This also holds for registered voters who have received several notification cards. This may happen in exceptional cases when a person entitled to vote is inappropriately registered in the population registers of several municipalities.
To safeguard democratic equality, penal provisions have been established. According to Section 107a (1) of the German Penal Code, anyone who votes without being entitled thereto or otherwise causes an incorrect election result or falsifies the result, shall be liable to imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine. Attempting to act in such a way is also liable to prosecution. Thus anyone casting his/her vote several times in the European election would render himself liable to prosecution.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
email: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de