Germans living abroad only have a few weeks to send their votes in – Image: Arnulf Hettrich/IMAGO
Three to four million Germans living abroad are entitled to vote in the upcoming snap German elections on February 23. But there are a few snags.
Christian Wagner, spokesperson for German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, has some advice for Germans living abroad: If you want to make sure that your vote counts in the Bundestag election on February 23, get your election documents now, because getting the ballot paper with the party candidates in time, filling it out and sending it back to Germany in time is not easy.
This year’s election date was only decided after Germany’s Social Democrat chancellor, Olaf Scholz, lost his vote of confidence in the Bundestag in mid-December, paving the way for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to set the election date for February 23, 2025.
Wagner warned: “Tight deadlines mean that even normal German parliamentary elections are challenging in some countries. Depending on where they live, some Germans living abroad may not receive their ballot papers in time.” In regular elections, German embassies and consulates abroad start preparing months before an election — now they have just a few weeks.
Voting at the German embassy?
Germans living abroad who want to vote have to register on the electoral roll of one of the 299 constituencies in Germany. This is normally the person’s last place of residence in Germany. But some countries handle this differently: For example, when Turkey held a run-off for the presidential elections in May 2023, around 1.5 million Turkish citizens in Germany were entitled to vote. They were able to do so at 17 different locations, including consulates, in Germany.
This is not possible in the Bundestag elections: “In Germany, there is no provision for simply voting in an embassy. We simply don’t have that in our electoral system,” Wagner conceded. But it is now possible to simply send an email to the electoral district in Germany asking for the documents to be sent.
Three to four million eligible voters — theoretically
There are only rough estimates of how many people this actually affects. “There is no obligation to register abroad, so we can only estimate how many Germans are abroad, and how many of them are eligible to vote,” said Wagner. “We assume a total of three to four million.” Many more Germans live abroad, but not all are entitled to vote.
As a rule, all Germans who have lived in Germany for at least three months without interruption after their 14th birthday are eligible to vote. But there are exceptions: For example, the stay must not date back more than 25 years. In other words, Germans who have only been in Germany briefly from time to time, are not eligible to vote. That obviously also applies to those with a German passport who have never set foot in the Federal Republic.
Only 130,000 Germans living abroad voted in 2021
The only exception to these rules are for people who are, “for other reasons, personally and directly acquainted with the political circumstances in Germany and affected by them.” If they can prove it, of course. This might, for example, affect people who work in Germany or hold shares in German companies, which employ many people.
It all sounds complicated, and it is — which is probably one of the reasons why only about 130,000 Germans living abroad out of three to four million eligible voters voted in the last Bundestag election in 2021. The majority of these lived in EU countries and other European states such as the UK or Turkey.
Only 7,700 Germans in the USA, 5,300 in Asia and only 1,500 in the whole of Africa, Canada and Australia combined voted.
Hire an express mail carrier
Time is running out for Germans abroad who want to apply. Wagner promises that the 154 or so German embassies around the world and the 50 or so general consulates will help: “We are of course looking at what we can do to provide support. When it comes to delivering election documents, we have actually made it possible to use the official courier service.”
In other words: If you wish, you can bring your completed voting documents to an embassy in a sealed envelope. From there, the German Foreign Office will organize transportation to Berlin or to the Bonn office. From there, it will be sent by post to the electoral constituencies, where it must be received by 6 p.m. on February 23 at the latest.
That also sounds complicated, which is why Wagner says: “Sometimes a commercial express mail delivery service is simply quicker.” In practice, then, the best way for Germans living abroad to exercise their right to vote is probably to get the documents sent from a constituency in Germany, fill them out and send them back immediately by express mail. (DW/NAN 23-01-25)
