Roderich Egeler
President of the Federal Statistical Office
Press release June 5, 2009
Representative electoral statistics for the 2009 European Election
As reported by the Federal Returning Officer, representative electoral statistics will be compiled for the seventh election to the European Parliament on 7 June 2009 as for former European elections. Voter turnout and the casting of votes by age, sex and Länder will be determined in well above 2,900 polling districts selected at random. The secrecy of the ballot is ensured for the individual voters in these polling districts, too. First results of the representative electoral statistics for the 2009 European Election will be available in August 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 of representative electoral statistics 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 German polling districts in the forthcoming European election. 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 guarded 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. Moreover, the polling districts selected must have had a minimum of 400 registered voters (ballot box polling districts) or voters (postal ballot districts) in the last European election of 2004. Finally, results must not be published for single polling districts selected.
For more detailed information on how representative electoral statistics are compiled for the 2009 European Election please refer to here.
For further information please contact:
Karina Schorn,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2317,
e-mail: bundeswahlleiter@destatis.de