Which Ballot Sheets You Are Handed on 20 September
Berlin votes on Sunday 20 September 2026 for the Abgeordnetenhaus and the twelve district assemblies, and who gets which sheet depends on three facts: your passport, your birthday and the date your main home in Berlin began. Put those three in and the board draws the ballot papers you will actually receive, then asks where you will be on Sunday and marks the one deadline of this week that still belongs to you against the live clock.
The rules come from the Landeswahlleiter Berlin: German citizens who are 16 on election day and have had their main home in Berlin since 20 June 2026 vote for both the Abgeordnetenhaus, with a first and a second vote on one sheet, and for their Bezirksverordnetenversammlung with one vote. Citizens of another EU member state under the same conditions receive the BVV sheet only. Any other passport receives no ballot. The postal-vote deadlines are the official ones: the online application until Tuesday 15 September, written applications and walk-in voting at the Briefwahlstelle until Friday 18 September at 15:00, a replacement Wahlschein until Saturday 19 September at 12:00, and the red Wahlbrief at the Bezirkswahlamt by 18:00 on election day. Polling stations open from 8:00 to 18:00. Checked on 15 September 2026; your Bezirkswahlamt makes the binding decision.
Start with the person holding the notice, because the three tests are personal: the passport you actually hold, whether you were born before 21 September 2010, and whether your main home in Berlin began by 20 June 2026. The board then draws the Abgeordnetenhaus sheet with its two votes and the BVV sheet with its single vote, in the colour you will receive them, greyed where a sheet is not issued to you. The second step is your Sunday: at your polling station, away without postal papers, holding postal papers already, or still waiting for papers that have not come. Each answer belongs to a different deadline, and the week is drawn on one line with a red needle at the current time, so the deadlines that have already passed fade out and the one that is yours stays yellow.
Two elections, no referendum
Berlin elects its 20th Abgeordnetenhaus, with at least 130 seats, 78 of them won directly in constituencies and the rest through party lists that need 5 percent of second votes, and the twelve Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen with 55 members each and a 3 percent threshold. The two citizens initiatives that were heading for the same day, on car-free streets inside the S-Bahn ring and on digital advertising, both fell short of the signatures they needed by 8 May 2026 and were declared failed on 22 May, so there is no Volksentscheid on the ballot.
Why the passport decides the sheets
The Abgeordnetenhaus is a state parliament, and the right to elect it belongs to German citizens. The district assemblies are local self-government, and EU law gives citizens of other member states who live here the same vote in them as Germans, which in Berlin is about 250,000 people. Residents from outside the EU hold neither vote until they naturalise. The age and residence tests are the same for everyone: 16 on election day, so born before 21 September 2010, and a main home in Berlin without a break since 20 June 2026.
Five deadlines that are not the same deadline
The online form for postal-vote papers closes on Tuesday 15 September. A written application by form, email or fax reaches the Bezirkswahlamt until Friday 18 September at 15:00, and until the same moment the district Briefwahlstelle takes walk-ins who vote on the spot with photo ID. A replacement Wahlschein for lost or missing papers is issued only until Saturday 19 September at 12:00, and someone who applied by post cannot vote at the polling station without it. The red envelope has to be physically at the Bezirkswahlamt by 18:00 on Sunday; the office asks for three working days by post, and you may hand it in yourself.
What Sunday asks of you
Polling stations are open from 8:00 to 18:00, about 2,550 of them across the city, run by around 40,000 volunteers. Bring photo ID, which may even be expired; the notice itself is helpful but not required, and the Wahllokalsuche on the Landeswahlleiter site finds your station from your address. Nobody may vote in your place. If you fall ill on the day, a person with a signed authority can collect postal papers for you from the Bezirkswahlamt until 15:00.