Election notifications will be sent out by February 2 at the latest. This is how the electoral office informs citizens that they have been entered in the city's electoral register and are entitled to vote. However, all eligible voters may vote, even without a voter's notification, if they can prove their identity. In some cases, eligible voters may not receive a notification, for example because a letterbox is missing or an existing letterbox is not labeled and the voter's notification cannot be delivered.

Anyone who has not received a notification by February 2 but believes they are entitled to vote can inspect the electoral roll from Monday, February 3, to Friday, February 7, at one of the four polling stations in the city districts and lodge an objection if necessary.

There is a polling station in every district:

• City Hall Berliner Platz 2, entrance hall
• Bad Godesberg Town Hall, Kurfürstenallee 2-3
• Beuel Town Hall, Friedrich-Breuer-Str. 65
• Duisdorf Town Hall, Villemombler Str. 1

Ballot papers are expected to be available there from Saturday, February 8. Due to the shortened deadlines for the early Bundestag elections, the electoral office has extended the opening hours of the polling stations and will also be available to citizens on two Saturdays:

• Monday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 am to 4 pm
• Friday, February 14, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  Friday, February 21, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Saturday, February 8, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  Saturday, February 15, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The electoral office asks you to go to the polling station in your home borough if possible, but the four polling stations are generally open to all citizens.

For the early Bundestag election 2025, the deadline for sending and returning postal voting documents is much shorter than usual at just 14 days. The electoral office of the city of Bonn has therefore followed the recommendation of the Federal Returning Officer and advises eligible voters to use the ballot box on Sunday, February 23, if possible. This guarantees that the votes cast on the evening of the election will be included in the count.

Alternatively, "on-site postal voting" at one of the four polling stations in the city districts is a good way to make sure your vote is counted - probably from Saturday, February 8. The postal voting documents are issued directly on site and anyone who wants to can fill them in directly and drop them in the ballot box - which is legally a letterbox. The electoral office takes care of transportation to the City Hall, where the postal voting documents are assigned to the corresponding postal voting district and counted there on election night.

The electoral office has no influence on the dispatch times of the postal companies and therefore cannot guarantee that all postal voting documents sent out will arrive in the short term due to the tight deadline and that there will be enough time to return them - especially if the documents are only requested shortly before the election date. Therefore, if you still have to use postal voting, you should apply for the documents as early as possible and send them back as soon as possible.

The back of the election notification contains the postal vote application form. This can be filled out and sent to the electoral office. A QR code is also printed on it, which can be used to apply for postal voting documents online. It is also possible to apply for postal voting by email to  wahlenbonnde.

The Bonn city area is divided into 177 polling districts. Anyone wishing to vote by ballot box on election Sunday should find out the exact location of their polling station in advance. The address can be found on the polling card.

The proportion of postal voters has always been very high in recent years. In the last Bundestag election under coronavirus conditions in 2021, around 52% of eligible voters cast their vote by post. In the 2024 European elections, the figure was around 39%. The electoral office is once again prepared for a high proportion of postal votes and has set up 65 postal voting boards.

A total of around 2,500 election workers will be on duty on election day. A sufficient number of volunteers have already signed up, meaning that no more volunteers are currently needed for the Bundestag election. "We as the electoral office are very pleased about the broad commitment of the citizens of Bonn in the upcoming election," says Dieter Schubert, head of the electoral office. "We know that this is not the case in all cities and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit people for this important honorary office. Even though we no longer need helpers for the Bundestag elections, we are still happy to receive any requests. Because the next votes are already due in September with the local elections and a possible run-off election," says Schubert. Anyone interested can get in touch via an online form at  www.bonn.de/wahlhelfende (opens in a new tab).

Information about the election is available at  www.bonn.de/bundestagswahl. (opens in a new tab) If you have any questions, the team at the city's electoral office can be contacted by telephone on 0228 - 77 22 55 and by email at  wahlenbonnde.

Constituency returning officer: City Director Wolfgang Fuchs

Constituency: For the Bundestag election, the federal city of Bonn forms "constituency 95 Bonn" of a total of 299 constituencies in the federal territory.

Voting districts: The Bonn city area is divided into 177 voting districts and 65 postal voting districts.

Poll workers: 2,500 volunteers will ensure that everything runs smoothly on election Sunday.

Eligible voters: On the cut-off date, January 12, 2025, 225,779 people were registered on the Bonn electoral roll. The number may increase due to applications from Germans living abroad. There are also minor changes due to deaths or naturalizations, for example.

First-time voters: Around 10,000 people in Bonn belong to the group of first-time voters.

Who can vote? Anyone who is at least 18 years old on election day, has German citizenship, has lived in Germany for at least three months and is not excluded from voting is eligible to vote. Germans living abroad may also vote if they apply in advance.

First and second vote: All eligible voters have two votes each. The first vote is used to directly elect the constituency representative (Bonn direct mandate). The second vote is used to elect the state list of a party.

Who is up for election? This has not yet been finalized. Parties, political associations and individual candidates have until January 20 to submit their nominations. These must then be legally checked and approved by the election committee on January 24.

Election period: The German Bundestag is elected for four years.

Voter turnout: Experience shows that voter turnout is higher in Bundestag elections than in other elections. In Bonn, the turnout was 79.3% in 2017 and 80.6% in 2021 (nationwide: 76.2% in 2017 and 76.7% in 2021).