Federal Voting Machine Ordinance

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Basic data
Title: Ordinance on the use of voting machines in elections to the German Bundestag and members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany
Short title: Federal Voting Machine Ordinance
Abbreviation: BWahlGV
Type: Federal Ordinance
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Constitutional law
References : 111-1-3
Issued on: September 3, 1975 ( BGBl. I p. 2459 )
Entry into force on: September 14, 1975
Last change by: Art. 1 Regulation of 20 April 1999
( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 749 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		April 24, 1999
(Art. 3 of April 20, 1999)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The ordinance on the use of voting machines in elections to the German Bundestag and members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany ( Federal Voting Machine Ordinance , BWahlGV ) is a statutory ordinance on voting with voting machines issued on the basis of the Federal Electoral Act . On April 20, 1999, it replaced the original ordinance on the use of voting machines from 1975, which was still designed for mechanical voting machines.

On March 3, 2009, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance unconstitutional, as it “does not ensure that only voting machines are permitted and used that meet the constitutional requirements of the principle of the public”.

Criteria for voting machines

Declaration of identical construction for the Nedap voting device of type ESD1

Criteria that the voting machine must meet according to the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance are:

  • Correct implementation of the electoral process
  • Secure storage of the votes cast
  • Maintaining voting secrecy
  • Correct counting of votes
  • Operability of the devices
  • Safe and durable construction
  • Security in the event of malfunctions
  • Insensitivity to mechanical, climatic and electromagnetic environmental influences

These and other criteria are checked by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt before a voting machine can be approved by the Federal Ministry of the Interior .

equipment

The first type approval was granted on May 31, 1999 by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) responsible for testing voting machines according to the BWahlGV . The PTB was not accredited as a software test laboratory until 2001. The only devices approved in Germany according to this regulation were the types ESD1 and ESD2 from the Dutch company Nedap . With reference to its copyright law , Nedap was able to prevent full file inspection of the PTB's test documents in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act .

The digital voting pen intended for the Hamburg state elections could not be used for federal elections according to the previous BWahlGV, as the text of the regulation was too specifically tailored to devices with buttons.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sentence according to the Federal Constitutional Court, press office: Press release No. 19/2009 of March 3, 2009 , online at http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg09-019.html , accessed March 3, 2009
  2. ↑ Text of the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance
  3. ↑ c't 20/2006, Obscure Democracy Machine

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