Elections

Candidates are elected on the basis of nominations by political parties and voter groups. Candidates therefore cannot stand for election themselves, but must be nominated by a party or group of voters.

In mayoral and district council elections, each nomination may only contain one candidate.

Irrespective of the size of the municipality or district, in municipal and district council elections each nomination may contain no more candidates than the number of honorary municipal or district council members to be elected. Only in the case of a majority election, i.e. if only a single nomination has been submitted in the constituency, may the number of candidates be increased to twice the number of municipal council or district council members to be elected. The parties and electoral groups determine the selection and order of the candidates in nomination meetings.

No specific organizational form is prescribed for electoral groups. Loose associations of eligible voters can therefore also act as electoral groups and submit nominations.

The Chief Electoral Officer shall first make the nominations submitted public in the usual manner no later than on the 58th day before the election day (January 9, 2026). Thereafter, the nominations approved for the election are published in the usual manner no later than on the 22nd day before the election day (February 3, 2026).

All eligible voters who are registered for a residence in a municipality in Bavaria on the 42nd day before the election (January 25, 2026) will be officially entered in the electoral register and will receive a postal voting notification from their municipality no later than three weeks before the election (February 15, 2026). Anyone who has not received an election notification by then but believes they are entitled to vote should contact the electoral office of their municipality immediately. Under no circumstances should you wait until election day to clarify your right to vote.

The postal voting documents will be issued and sent out by the municipalities from February 16, 2026 at the earliest .

To vote by post, you must apply for a polling card with the relevant postal voting documents in writing or in person at the electoral office of your municipality of residence. There is no need to give a reason for this. The application must always include the first and last name, date of birth and full residential address and, if applicable, a different address.

It is advisable to use the form printed on the back of the voter's notification for the application.

The application can also be made by fax or email, not by telephone. Many municipalities offer the option of applying for a polling card using an online form on their website or via a QR code on the polling card. You can find out which towns and municipalities offer an online form in the"BayernPortal". You will then receive the following postal voting documents:

a) a polling card
b) the ballot papers
c) a ballot paper envelope
d) a red ballot paper envelope
e) an information sheet.

If a polling card with postal voting documents is to be sent by post, the application must be submitted in good time so that delivery is still possible, taking into account the processing and postal delivery times. This can take several days. If in doubt, you should collect the polling card and postal voting documents directly or have them collected.

Polling cards can be applied for at the municipality up to two days before the election, i.e. until Friday, March 6, 2026, 3 p.m. Only in certain exceptional cases (e.g. in the event of sudden proven illness) can they still be applied for up until 3 p.m. on election day.

You can only vote in the polling station indicated on the polling card, otherwise you must submit an application. Keep the polling card, it is important in case there is a run-off election.

In the general municipal and district elections, there are up to four ballot papers, namely for the election
a) of the first mayor,
b) of the district administrator
c) of the municipal or city council members and
d) of the district councillors.

Each voter has one vote each for the election of the first mayor and the district administrator.

For the election of municipal councillors and district councillors, every person entitled to vote has as many votes as there are municipal councillors and district councillors to be elected. The number of votes that can be cast is stated at the top of the ballot paper.

Accumulate means that individual candidates can be given up to a maximum of three votes.

Panache voting allows voters to mark candidates on different lists and thus vote for candidates from different parties and voter groups.

A proposed list can also be accepted as a whole via the list cross. This means that each candidate in the order listed receives one vote. It is also possible to delete individual candidates within the list. If, in addition to a list cross, votes (single or clustered) are also distributed to individual candidates of this election proposal and other election proposals, the individually allocated votes are counted first and any remaining votes are allocated to the unmarked candidates on the list in the order listed there. It is also possible to distribute the votes to be awarded to individual candidates (individually or cumulatively, from one or more lists) without a list cross.

The results are counted in the following order:

1. Mayoral election
2. District council election
3. Municipal council election
4. District council election.

The results of the district administrator and district council elections will be available on the homepage of the district administration. The results of the mayoral and municipal council elections will be published by the municipalities.
The electoral boards and postal ballot boards begin counting the votes at 6 p.m. at the earliest.
The provisional results of the mayoral and district council elections can generally be expected on the evening of the election.

Due to the special electoral system, determining the election results for the municipal council and district council is comparatively time-consuming. Depending on the size of the municipality, these elections are not evaluated until the following day.