Facts about the Bundestag election 2025 – from postal votes to election workers

If you cannot or do not want to go to the polling station on the election Sunday, February 23, you can also vote by postal voting. This is precisely regulated, the federal election management in Wiesbaden announced: “All voters registered in the electoral list will receive an election notification from your community by February 2, 2025 at the latest.” All citizens who were registered with the main apartment with their municipality on January 12 and on the 42nd day before the election are registered in the electoral register.

The election notifications also indicate the respective polling station for voters on February 23. Anyone who has not received any election notification by February 2 should immediately ask for a review at the election office at the site of their main apartment.

41 parties can participate. As the federal election manager announced, the Federal Election Committee decided. This approved fewer parties than in the last election in 2021. For most parties, however, there is another hurdle for participation.

In 2021, the Federal Election Committee initially approved 53 parties. If you are not already represented in the Bundestag or in a state parliament with five MPs, you have to meet another condition then as now: you have to collect support signatures for your specific election proposals. Not everyone succeeded in 2021. Therefore, only 47 parties came to election.

The election committee found for the Bundestag election 2025 that ten parties do not need signature lists because they are already represented in sufficient numbers in the Bundestag or state parliament. The Südschleswig Voters’ Association (SSW) also does not have to do this as a party of a national minority. Because of this status, the five percent hurdle for the move into the Bundestag does not apply to him.

The Federal Foreign Office assumes that three to four million Germans are entitled to vote abroad in the early Bundestag election. Since there was no obligation to report abroad, these figures were only appreciated, said a spokesman. In the latest Bundestag election in 2021, 130,000 Germans had entered the voter register abroad. The Federal Foreign Office called the Germans abroad to register as quickly as possible and to ensure the shipping of the documents in exchange with the home community.

For some voters, participation in the election on February 23, according to the Federal Foreign Office, could become scarce this time. It is possible that postal voting documents would not be in time or were not back in Germany in time, said the spokesman. “Of course we see what we can do to support,” he added.

Despite the narrow period until the early Bundestag election, the federal states expect sufficient election helpers. This had resulted in a survey by the Editorial Network Germany (RND) several weeks before the election. A spokesman for federal election manager Ruth Brand told the RND that she assumed that “sufficient volunteers will be won over”.

The chief managing director of the German Association of Cities and Municipalities, André Berghegger, also assumes that, despite shortened deadlines, there are sufficient helpers in the election, as he told the RND newspapers. “Despite the current exceptional situation, including shortened deadlines, numerous election workers will provide their commitment and time.”

According to the report in Germany, around 675,000 election workers took part in the European elections last June.

In our we report on the latest news and developments every day.

Read further articles here:

This is how the electoral system works in Germany

Who can choose in the federal election?

That mean first voice and second voice in the Bundestag election?

What does the ballot look like?

This is how the five percent hurdle works

Why do I need an election notification?

Sources: ,, with news agencies