{"id":76150,"date":"2026-08-20T22:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/76150\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T22:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T22:18:12","slug":"berlin-elections-who-can-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/76150\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin Elections: Who Can Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" data-lazy-type=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/imago197574216-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"lazy lazy-hidden wp-image-185104\"  \/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/imago197574216-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-185104\"  \/>IMAGO \/\u00a0Mauersberger<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Berlin elections for both state and local governments is on September 20. If you\u2019re new to Berlin or haven\u2019t voted in Germany before, we\u2019ve put together a guide to who can vote and how the process works.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s Eligible<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German passport holders have full voting rights. They can cast their ballots for the Abgeordnetenhauswahl (state election) and the Bezirksverordnetenversammlung (BVV), (district assembly), as well as being eligible to stand for office themselves. They don\u2019t need to register to vote and will receive important voting instructions by mail. They\u2019re are automatically entered on the electoral register, provided they\u2019ve been registered as residents for at least three months before election day and are above 16 years of age. This is the first time that 16- and 17-year-olds will be able to vote at state level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EU citizens living in Berlin are able to vote and stand for election on local level. Meaning, if you have an EU passport and are living in Berlin, you can vote for your BVV, or district assembly. The State Statistical Office estimates that around 250,000 EU citizens living in Berlin will be eligible to vote in local elections this year. This represents roughly nine per cent of the electorate and is a new record high for the city.<\/p>\n<p>What to Expect<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Berlin\u2019s state election director or Landeswahlleiter, eligible EU citizens can expect their election materials delivered by post by August 30. The election materials include the address of an assigned polling station, opening hours, instructions on how to complete the ballot papers and information about postal, absentee and early voting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Refugees or people with migrant history who are not eligible to vote in Berlin will have a chance to vote on the Landesbeirat f\u00fcr Partizipation (State Advisory Council for Participation) in late 2026. The date has not been specified yet. Although advisory boards don\u2019t have formal decision-making powers, they do make recommendations to the government and ensure that the groups they represent can raise concerns within the political process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IMAGO \/\u00a0Mauersberger The Berlin elections for both state and local governments is on September 20. If you\u2019re new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,56068,42,358,56069],"class_list":["post-76150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-elections","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}