Catalogue question 119 · Question catalogue in force since 2024-07-01
Elections in Germany are free. What does that mean?
- All convicted offenders may not vote.
- If I want to vote, my employer must give me time off.
- Every person can decide, free of coercion, whether to vote and whom to vote for. Correct
- I can freely decide which polling station to vote at.
Why — for every option
- A — Offenders do not automatically lose the right to vote upon conviction — withdrawal is only possible in narrowly regulated exceptional cases (§ 45(5) Criminal Code).
- B — There is no general statutory duty on employers to give time off for voting — voting takes place outside working hours or by postal vote.
- C — Correct: freedom of elections (Art. 38(1) Basic Law) means that nobody may be forced to vote at all, or in a particular way.
- D — The polling place is generally tied to one's residence (constituency/polling station), not freely chosen — the exception is a postal voting certificate or another polling station within the constituency.
Source: www.gesetze-im-internet.de
Last checked: · Question catalogue in force since 2024-07-01 · Every figure on this page is checked against its primary source.