Anyone who cannot make it to a polling station on Sunday can organize an election card. The application for this must be sent to the post office in the return envelope by this Wednesday at the latest. Everyone entitled to vote should have received the application form and the envelope for it in the past few days.
Verbal application to the municipality by Friday noon
Anyone who can no longer post their absentee ballot application on Wednesday might instead go to their municipality of residence and verbally apply for an absentee ballot there by Friday at 12 noon. However, a personal appearance is necessary for this, an absentee ballot cannot be requested by telephone.
Taking photos of your own ballot paper is not prohibited
Official photo ID must be shown at the polling station. You do not have to have the official election information with you – but you do need to have an election card if you have requested one and not used it for postal voting. The time in the voting booth is not limited. The electoral officer can ask people to leave the polling booth if they feel they are trying to prevent others from voting.
Photographing your own ballot paper is not prohibited. Voting secrecy, which is enshrined in the constitution, protects voters from knowing what was voted on once morest their will. Photographing and posting another person’s ballot without their consent would be illegal.
Ticked wrong
Anyone who has ticked the wrong place and has not yet put the ballot envelope in the ballot box can theoretically ask the election officials for a new ballot paper. The completed form must be torn up in front of the election officials and the scraps of paper taken with you, otherwise the secrecy of the ballot might be violated.
Drawings on the ballot paper are permitted if it is still possible to identify who voted. There is a penalty of up to 218 euros or two weeks’ imprisonment for drawings on the election envelope. It is forbidden to attach words, remarks or signs to the ballot envelopes, as this might result in the person’s vote being assigned, i.e. voting secrecy would be violated.
Post empties exceptionally on Saturday
You can put your absentee ballot in the mailbox by 9:00 a.m. on the Saturday before the election at the latest – if the next post box isn’t far away. Because on Saturday from 9:00 a.m., the post office empties all mailboxes and brings the absentee ballots to the district electoral authorities. Postage does not have to be paid, it is borne by the federal government. Abroad, it must be submitted to the post office in such a way that the absentee ballot arrives at the district electoral authority by Sunday – i.e. de facto on Friday.
Voting cards can be used in all polling stations in Austria. Or the absentee ballot can be exchanged for a “normal” ballot at a polling station. If you want to cast your vote abroad, for example while traveling, you have to pay attention to the delivery deadlines. In the EU or Switzerland, the absentee ballot can also be handed in at an Austrian representative authority (embassy) up to 3 October; in non-EU countries this is possible until September 30th.
Anyone who has applied for an absentee ballot can only vote with it. Even on the election weekend you can still get an absentee ballot if you are in the place that you have given as the delivery address. Because the municipal election authorities have to pick up absentee ballots from the post office and hand them over to the voters on October 9th. You can find out where your voting card is by calling the Interior Ministry hotline on Saturday on 0800/20 22 20 and on Sunday on +43/01/53126 2470.
Voting closes at 5 p.m. – with the exception of Vorarlberg
According to the law, the polling stations for the Hofburg election on October 9 may be open until 5 p.m. Traditionally, in Vorarlberg you can only vote until 1 p.m. Although many polling stations, especially in smaller communities, close earlier, their results may only be published following the polls have ended. The Constitutional Court also insisted on this in 2016: the electoral authorities are now strictly prohibited from even passing on information to the media and opinion research institutes before the end of the election.
On the evening of the election, the Minister of the Interior will announce a provisional final result. In this case, however, the postal votes are still missing. They will be evaluated on Monday. So the final result – at least of the first ballot – will be known on Monday evening.
