The election of the Bundestag is one of the very simple duties of democracy. With a cross, the so-called first vote, the people of Munich can decide who will represent them in Berlin as a member of their constituency for the next four years. With the other cross, the second vote, they decide on the composition of Parliament. A party has to be elected for this. The ballot papers are, in contrast to the square-meter paper monster used for city council elections, small and clear. As of Thursday, 923 135 citizens are entitled to vote, 479 790 women and 443 345 men. Well over half of them will not vote on Sunday, but will vote by postal vote. By last Wednesday the electoral office had received 497,750 applications for this.
If you want to make a cross in a booth on Sunday and personally throw the note into an urn, you can do so from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The city will open exactly 463 polling stations in the four constituencies of North, East, South and West / Center. The pandemic should not restrict freedom of choice, which is why the 3-G rule does not apply in the rooms. However, voters must wear a medical mask or an FFP2 mask and comply with the other hygiene and distance requirements.
The election workers may therefore allow fewer citizens to enter the polling station at the same time than they are used to with other votes. That could lead to snakes. If you arrive punctually by 6 p.m. at the latest and then have to queue, you can still cast your vote in any case, said a spokesman for the district administration department in which the municipal electoral office is located. For reasons of hygiene, it is also possible to use your own pen when voting in Corona times. Four out of five polling stations are completely barrier-free, the rest at least partially. (More information on the Internet at www.muenchen.de/wahl-barrierefrei).
More Munich residents than ever before in a federal election have opted for postal voting. In the end, the share will probably be well over half of all votes cast. It is important to note that all voting letters must also be received punctually by 6 p.m. on Sunday. The city has prepared an extensive offer for Munich residents, where documents can be submitted in person up to the last minute. If you want to send the traditional way by post, you have to put your ballot into one of the yellow mailboxes by Saturday. However, it is advisable to check the box itself to see whether it is then emptied.
In addition, postal voters can drop their notes at numerous authorities until 6 p.m. on Sunday. This is possible, for example, in the town hall on Marienplatz, in the district inspections and in the district administration department (Ruppertstrasse 11 and 19). On Saturday and Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., postal voting documents can also be dropped in ballot boxes at central stations on the subway. These are guarded by security personnel. This will be possible at Hohenzollernplatz, Rotkreuzplatz, Münchner Freiheit or in Messestadt West, among others. (All postal voting boxes are below www.muenchen.de/abgabestellen to find).
On the evening of the election, the Munich results will be live on the Internet www.wahlen-muenchen.de presents. From around 7 p.m. the electoral office expects the first reports from the polling stations. The authorities do not want to make a prognosis as to when the Munich result could be available.