Source: http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20090303_2bvc000307en.html
Timestamp: 2014-11-26 20:02:35
Document Index: 566510753

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 35', '§ 35', '§ 35', '§ 1', '§ 35', '§ 1', '§ 2', '§ 35']

Zitierung: BVerfG, 2 BvC 3/07 vom 3.3.2009, Absatz-Nr. (1 - 166), http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rs20090303_2bvc000307en.htmlFrei f�r den nicht gewerblichen Gebrauch. Kommerzielle Nutzung nur mit Zustimmung des Gerichts.
The principle of the public nature of elections emerging from Article 38 in conjunction with Article 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz � GG) requires that all essential steps in the elections are subject to public examinability unless other constitutional interests justify an exception.
Judgment of the Second Senate of 3 March 2009on the basis of the oral hearing of 28 October 2008 � 2 BvC 3/07, 2 BvC 4/07 �
I.of Dr. W�
Prof. Dr. �,
lawyers �
the resolution of the German Bundestag of 14 December 2006 � WP 145/05 � (Bundestag document (Bundestagsdrucksache � BTDrucks) 16/3600) � 2 BvC 3/07 �, II.of Prof. Dr. W�
Prof. Dr. �
the resolution of the German Bundestag of 14 December 2006 � WP 108/05 � (Bundestag document 16/3600) � 2 BvC 4/07 �.
RULING: The Ordinance on the Deployment of Voting Machines in Elections to the German Bundestag and of the Members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany (Federal Voting Machine Ordinance (Bundeswahlgeräteverordnung � BWahlGV)) of 3 September 1975 (Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt � BGBl) I p. 2459) in the version of the Ordinance Amending the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance and the European Election Code (Verordnung zur Änderung der Bundeswahlgeräteverordnung und der Europawahlordnung) of 20 April 1999 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 749) is not compatible with Article 38 in conjunction with Article 20.1 and 20.2 of the Basic Law insofar as it does not ensure monitoring that complies with the constitutional principle of the public nature of elections.
The complaints requesting the scrutiny of an election relate to the permissibility of the deployment of computer-controlled voting machines, which are also referred to as electronic voting machines or �election computers�, in the elections to the 16th German Bundestag.
1. Roughly two million persons eligible to vote in Brandenburg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt cast their votes in the elections to the 16th German Bundestag via computer-controlled voting machines which are manufactured by the Dutch company Nedap and have been sold in Germany since 1999 as a central component of the �Integral Election System� (IWS) of H. GmbH. The type designations of these voting machines are composed of a name for the device generation (ESD1 or ESD2), as well as in each case of a version number for the hardware (HW) and for the software (SW). The types ESD1 (HW 1.02; SW 2.02), ESD1 (HW 1.02; SW 2.07), ESD1 (HW 1.03; SW 3.08), ESD1 (HW 1.04; SW 3.08) and ESD2 (HW 1.01; SW 3.08) have so far been used in elections to the German Bundestag.
These voting machines are controlled via a microprocessor and a software program. The votes cast are exclusively stored on an electronic storage medium and are counted electronically by the voting machine at the end of the election day. After the electronic ascertainment of the results, the voting machine shows the total votes cast for the respective electoral proposals; the results can be printed out via a printer that is integrated into the voting machine. The software program which controls the registration of the ballot and the ascertainment of the results is to be found on two electronic storage modules (so-called EPROMs; EPROM = Erasable Programmable Read-Only-Memory) which are installed in the device under a screwed-on cover and are secured by two seals applied by the manufacturer. The votes cast at the voting machine � including the linkages (first vote and connected second vote) � are stored on a removable cassette-like storage medium � the so-called vote storage module, also referred to as �electronic ballot box� (see Schönau, Elektronische Demokratie, 2007, p. 53). The data of the voting slips, the attribution of the individual keys to the electoral proposals, as well as the date of the election and the polling station, are also stored on the vote storage module.
The voting machines have a keypad (�the voter tableau�) over which an insertion sheet is placed portraying a voting slip imitating the official voting slip. Above the key field one finds a display (LCD display) which guides the voter through the election procedure and enables him or her to examine her or her entries. The keypad and the LCD display are flanked by two vision-shielding panels on either side. On the reverse of the voting machine are the abovementioned printer and a slot for the vote storage module. The voting machines are linked with a control unit on the returning committee�s table. The control unit shows the returning committee the casting of the votes by the respective voter such that the display of the number of voters increases by one. After the voter has cast his or her votes, the voting machine is blocked for further balloting until the returning committee releases it for the next voter.
An element of the �Integral Election System� sold by H. is a programming and reading out device which enables the local authority to prepare the vote storage modules in conjunction with a personal computer prior to the elections and to read out the ballot information from the storage module after the election and to make it available for further data processing. The storage modules can be read out once more after the election day with the aid of a voting machine. The software of the �Integral Election System� also makes it possible to print the stored votes at a computer as voting slips with the corresponding crosses.
2. An attempt was already made in Germany in the nineteen-sixties to replace the manual counting of the voting slips linked to the traditional election event using more rational methods and by deploying voting machines. According to § 35.3 of the Federal Electoral Act (Bundeswahlgesetz � BWG) of 7 May 1956 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 383 � Federal Electoral Act), the Federal Minister of the Interior was able to permit officially authorised vote counting devices to be used instead of voting slips. The Ordinance on the Use of Vote Counting Devices in Elections to the German Bundestag (Verordnung über die Verwendung von Stimmenzählgeräten bei Wahlen zum Deutschen Bundestag) of 24 August 1961 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 1618) was handed down on this basis. § 35.3 of the Federal Electoral Act was rescinded by means of the Act Amending the Federal Electoral Act (Gesetz zur Änderung des Bundeswahlgesetzes) of 24 June 1975 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 1593), and replaced by a more detailed provision on �balloting with voting machines�, which since the promulgation of the new version of the Federal Electoral Act of 1 September 1975 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2325) can be found in § 35 of the Federal Electoral Act. The Ordinance on the Deployment of Voting Machines in Elections to the German Bundestag (Federal Voting Machine Ordinance) (Bundeswahlgeräteverordnung � BWahlGV) of 3 September 1975 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2459) provided in § 1 that mechanically or electrically driven voting machines may be used in elections to the German Bundestag if their type is authorised and their use was approved.
The words �with separate counting devices� were deleted with the Act on General and Representative Election Statistics in Elections to the German Bundestag and in the Election of Members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany (Gesetz über die allgemeine und die repräsentative Wahlstatistik bei der Wahl zum Deutschen Bundestag und bei der Wahl der Abgeordneten des Europäischen Parlaments aus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) of 21 May 1999 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 1023). The amendment to § 35 of the Federal Electoral Act was regarded as being necessary in order to be able to adjust the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance to technical developments in voting machines (see Bundestag document 14/401, p. 5).
The Ordinance Amending the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance and the European Election Code of 20 April 1999 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 749) already entered into force on 24 April 1999 and amended a large number of provisions of the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance in order to create the preconditions for the deployment of computer-controlled voting machines. The words �including computer-controlled� were added in § 1 of the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance after the words �electrically driven�. Further amendments were effected where the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance had previously used the term �counting devices�. § 2.6 of the Federal Voting Machine Ordinance was added, obliging the manufacturer to enclose a declaration of identity.
§ 35Voting with voting machines