German Law is very sane in regards to voting rights.

§ 13 of the German Federal Election Act (BWG) stipulates that only who is disenfranchised as a result of a judge’s decision is excluded from the right to vote.

This provision does not conflict with the general principle of equality in Article 3 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz - GG) and the principles of equality and universality of the vote, because the right to vote is not automatically revoked, but may only be revoked by a judge’s ruling if certain legal requirements are met.

However, this exclusion as a result of a German court ruling is only possible in a few cases expressly mentioned in the Criminal Code (StGB) and the Federal Constitutional Court Act (BVerfGG) and applies for a maximum of two to five years. Exclusion from the right to vote applies if a person has been sentenced to at least six months or at least one year in prison for the following offenses, for example:

• Preparation of a war of aggression and high treason against the Federation
• Treason and disclosure of state secrets
• Attack against organs and representatives of foreign states
• Obstruction of elections and falsification of election documents
• Bribery of members of parliament
• acts of sabotage of means of defense or intelligence service endangering security (in this case, a prison sentence of at least one year is required).

In these cases, the deprivation of the right to vote is at the discretion of the court in accordance with the special criminal law provisions and is not an automatic consequence of the conviction for these criminal offenses.

Furthermore, the right to vote can be revoked by the Federal Constitutional Court due to the violation of fundamental rights.

The disenfranchisement from voting is btw. also the foundation that makes one ineligible to be elected.

According to the Federal Election Act, anyone who has German citizenship and is of legal age on the day of the election is electable. This does not apply to those who:

• have lost the right to vote and therefore their eligibility to be elected as a result of a court ruling or no longer have the capacity to hold public office
• is permanently dependent on a statutory caregiver / guardian
• or is in a psychiatric hospital due to a conviction