Election FAQ

The Electoral Office organizes elections to the Academic Senate, faculty councils, and department councils (institutional committees). These elections are explained below. The Electoral Office also supports online voting for the review boards of the German Research Foundation.

Eligible voters and candidates include in particular permanent staff, enrolled students (enrollment must be complete), secondments to the University of Hamburg, and senior professors. Voters and candidates must belong to the respective voting constituency (faculty or department). Permanent employment requires at least a half-time position within the constituency (pursuant to Section 8 subsection 1 sentence 1, alternative 1 of the Hamburg higher education act (Hamburgisches Hochschulgesetz, HmbHG) and Section 2 subsection 1 number 1 alternative 1 of the University of Hamburg Statutes; reducing hours and/or interrupting employment can affect voting rights.

Use and submit the forms issued by the Electoral Office (list of nominations and one individual form per ranking) by the deadline. The forms can be signed electronically and submitted by email.

The member and the member’s deputy are permitted to sign different individual forms. Nonsignatories must only include their name. Otherwise, all general information must be provided in full.

There is a quota for women pursuant to Section 96 subsection 2 sentence 1 HmbHG as follows: “In a self-governing committee, at least 40 of 100 members should be women; in committees of 3, at least one committee member must be a woman.” The quota applies to candidates, not to their deputies. This quota also applies to all open-list candidates. For closed lists, the quota applies to the number of seats allocated to that group. If a nomination does not meet these requirements, a statement must be submitted to the University’s equal opportunity commissioner (gleichstellungsbeauf@uni-hamburg.de) or separately to the Electoral Office by the nomination deadline. Otherwise the nomination is invalid. Candidates with the official gender entry nonbinary or without any gender entry are expressly welcome.

The name of the list can be chosen freely and can, for example, contain a reference to the group, the constituency (such as the faculty or department), and/or their demands, goals, and values. The Electoral Office will notify you if there is a risk of confusion between list names. Closed lists rank their nominees; in the case of open lists, the final ranking is clear only when the election results are clear. It is standard to contact an ombudsperson, if one has been named, if the Electoral Office has questions or information. The candidate listed first is considered the contact person if no ombudsperson is indicated.

The accepted lists are notified of their campaign options during the respective election. Candidates may publish provide campaign material on the webpages of the Electoral Office. The lecture2go team offers support for campaign videos. In addition, during Academic Senate elections, candidates may send out a one-time voting call using a group-specific mailing list.

Voting regularly takes place online. As a rule, login details are sent electronically to all eligible voters, either to their University or work email.

Voting by mail is also possible upon request to the Electoral Office. The request must be made in writing and received by election management three weeks before the first day of the election period at the latest. Election documents are then sent to your address or handed over personally by the Electoral Office upon presentation of ID.

Provisional election results will be posted on the Electoral Office website for the duration of the objection period. See the respective committee pages for their current composition.

The Electoral office informs everyone who has been elected and their deputies by mail soon after the results are declared valid. Applicants on reserve lists will not be informed.

Contact the Electoral Office, which will coordinate your successor.

Yes. The Electoral Office is happy to issue proof.