Overview
- Officials advise posting completed red postal envelopes three working days before the vote—by Thursday, March 5—to ensure on-time delivery, warning that late arrivals will not be counted.
- Hand delivery remains available until 18:00 on Sunday, March 8, at the responsible municipal election office or designated drop boxes, with cities urging this option if postal timing is uncertain.
- Demand stays high across major cities: Frankfurt reports about 118,000 applications and plans roughly 7,000 election workers; Stuttgart logged around 116,000 requests with about 75,000 already returned; Nuremberg cites over 103,000 applications.
- Local cutoff rules differ: Stuttgart closed online requests on March 3 at 12:00 and allows in-person pickup until Friday, March 6, at 15:00 at the central office, with on-site voting booths available there.
- Voters who requested postal voting generally cannot switch to a polling station unless they present the white voting certificate (Wahlschein), and those suddenly ill may still apply for postal voting until 15:00 on election day if they can obtain and return materials by 18:00.