Press release no. 19/2013 of 5. September 2013
Active commitment: some 630,000 voluntary workers assist in the Bundestag election
WIESBADEN – On 22 September 2013, about 630,000 voluntary workers will contribute on an honorary basis in some 90,000 electoral boards to the success of the election to the 18th German Bundestag. They form the basis of the people organising the election themselves and thus are the most important pillars of the electoral procedure. The Federal Returning Officer asks the citizens to be available for this important voluntary activity and at the same time expresses his sincere thanks to all who will work on a voluntary basis in the electoral boards on 22 September 2013, thus doing a great service to our democracy and, consequently, to all of us.
At the forthcoming Bundestag election there will be approximately 80,000 polling districts for ballot box voting and about 10,000 districts for postal voting. The boundaries of the polling districts have been defined 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 Bundestag election.
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 municipal authority which then submits it to the constituency returning officer and staff. They determine the provisional election result for the constituency from the first releases and report their result to the Land returning officer. The Land returning officer and staff, in turn, instantly report the incoming constituency results to the Federal Returning Officer, who establishes the provisional result for all of Germany from these figures.
For further information:
Office of the Federal Returning Officer
tel: +49 611 75-4863
www.bundeswahlleiter.de/contact