Election mail transport for the 2027 North Rhine-Westphalia State Election

The required service according to § 52 para. 5 LWahlO includes the transport of official election envelopes from the entire federal territory to the respective municipality, i.e., to the 396 municipal authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia. Furthermore, according to § 54 para. 7 sentence 2 LWahlO, the election mail must be stamped with a postmark indicating the date. In the territory of North Rhine-Westphalia, due to the expected higher volume, the transport of mail in larger quantities than in comparable elections must be ensured. Within Germany, the postal service provider must be able to - accept election mail nationwide at a branch or mailbox and - transmit the election mail nationwide to the destination municipality in NRW at short notice, - guarantee Sunday delivery and - transport official election documents with priority (receipt + 2 working days). - ensure nationwide logistical infrastructure and personnel coverage, even for peak workloads. For proper performance of the task, it is therefore necessary that the provider has a dense network of acceptance points and mailboxes nationwide. It is also necessary that they are able to transport the mentioned volume of election mail during the mail voting period, which lasts only a few weeks. To ensure this, the postal service provider must be able to provide corresponding increased capacities for this period and also absorb peak workloads occurring during this period with appropriate personnel resources, as well as compensate for any other short-term failures of vehicles or technical systems with its logistical resources. For further details on the type and scope of the service, see the memo dated 27.02.2026.