Der Bundeswahlleiter

Invalid votes

At Bundestag elections, votes shall be invalid if the ballot paper

has not been officially produced under the authority of the government,
shows no marking,
is valid for another constituency,
does not reveal the voter’s intent beyond any doubt,
contains any addendum or reservation.

In the first two cases, both votes shall be invalid. In the third case, only the first vote shall be invalid, provided that the ballot paper is valid for another constituency of the same Land.

Where only one vote has been cast on the ballot paper, the vote not cast shall be invalid.

In postal ballots, both votes shall be invalid also if the ballot paper has been submitted in an envelope which is not an official ballot paper envelope or which evidently differs from the other envelopes in a manner endangering the secrecy of the ballot, or which contains a distinctly tangible object but has not been rejected for these reasons.
Several ballot papers in one ballot paper envelope shall be regarded as one ballot paper if the markings are identical or if only one of them has been marked; otherwise they shall count as one ballot paper with two invalid votes.
If the ballot paper envelope has been submitted empty, both votes shall be considered to be invalid.

Invalid votes at Bundestag elections since 1953

	Invalid
Election year	first votes		second votes
	number	%	number	%
1953 ¹⁾	959 790	3.4	928 278	3.3
1957	916 680	3.0	1 167 466	3.8
1961	845 158	2.6	1 298 723	4.0
1965	979 158	2.9	795 765	2.4
1969	809 548	2.4	557 040	1.7
1972	457 810	1.2	301 839	0.8
1976	470 109	1.2	343 253	0.9
1980	485 645	1.3	353 195	0.9
1983	434 176	1.1	338 841	0.9
1987	482 481	1.3	357 975	0.9
1990 ²⁾	720 990	1.5	540 143	1.1
1994 ²⁾	788 643	1.7	632 825	1.3
1998 ²⁾	780 507	1.6	638 575	1.3
2002	741 037	1.5	586 281	1.2
2005	850 072	1.8	756 146	1.6
2009	757 575	1.7	634 385	1.4

1) Without Saarland. - 2) Territory of the Federal Republic of Germany as of 3 October 1990.

The same shall apply at European elections subject to the proviso that there are no constituencies in such elections.

Invalid votes at European elections since 1979

	Invalid votes
Election year	number	%
1979	251 763	0.9
1984	387 383	1.5
1989	301 908	1.1
1994	884 115	2.4
1999	409 659	1.5
2004	739 426	2.8
2009	590 170	2.2

Legal bases:
Bundestag election: Section 39 of the Federal Elections Act (BWG)
European election: Section 4 of the European Elections Act (EuWG) in conjunction with Section 39 of the Federal Elections Act (BWG)

Last update: November 2010