apply for postal voting

Prerequisites

Documents required

- The application can be submitted informally
- if applying in person: identity card or passport
- if necessary, power of attorney if a third party submits the application on your behalf or receives your documents

Please note

Please consider postal delivery times and submit your application early.

You have the following options for applying for postal voting: You can submit the application in writing or by email - either informally or using the form from your election notification. Alternatively, you can use the online service, which is expected to be available six weeks before election day, or submit the application in person at the election office, which also opens six weeks before election day.

In addition, a central postal voting office will be set up on Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz, where all eligible voters can apply for their postal voting documents.
The documents will be sent out at least six weeks before election day.
If you have applied for postal voting, you can only vote at the polling station if you take your ballot paper with you to the polling station. You will find the ballot paper in your postal voting documents. If you do not receive the postal voting documents by post, you must report the loss to the election office and you will be issued with new documents.

Opening hours of the Central Postal Voting Office:
From January 21, 2025 - February 27, 2025:
Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.,
Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (January 25, February 1, February 8 and February 15, 2025)
Friday, February 21, 2025 and February 28, 2025, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

It is not possible to submit an application by telephone.
You will receive the postal voting documents at the shipping address you provided.
If you come to the polling station or the central postal voting office in person, you can take the documents with you directly or vote by post on site.

Deadlines

Postal voting documents for the federal election will be distributed from February 8, 2025.


You can usually apply for postal voting until 3 p.m. on the Friday before election day.

Procedure

Processing time

If you have submitted your application for postal voting in writing or online, then


Your application will be processed within 3 working days and the postal voting documents will be sent by post.


If you have applied for a postal vote in person at an election office, the documents will be issued to you immediately. You can take these with you or you can vote by post on site.

Fees

No

Legal remedies

contradiction

Legal basis

§ 17 Federal Election Act (BWahlG)

§ 17 BWahlG - individual norm (gesetze-im-internet.de)§


Title: Section 6 of the European Elections Act (EuWG)

§ 6 EuWG - individual norm (gesetze-im-internet.de)


§ 8 Law on the Election to the Hamburg Parliament (BüWG)

Hamburg - Table of Contents BüWG | State Standard Hamburg | Table of Contents | valid from: 11.07.2009 (landesrecht-hamburg.de)


§ 8 Law on Elections to District Assemblies (BezVWG)

Hamburg - Table of contents BezVWG | State standard Hamburg | Table of contents | valid from: 19.08.2018 (landesrecht-hamburg.de)