@georgeob1,
georgeob1 wrote:Please enlighten us on the rules that apply in Germany Walter.
We are automatically registered and get a "polling card" from the local electoral office (that's a department in every municipality), if we are 16 or 18 (depending on kind of election and state - 18 at federal and EU-parliament elections).
You just vote - if you're personally known by poll worker (and she/he makes a note on the list that you voted). Or you show your card - if you forgot it, your ID-card will work.
[NB: driver licences are not valid as ID-cards.]
If you do postal voting, you sign a couple of times that you're the one you intend to be, enclose your voting card (in a different envelope, of course).
Persons, who voted by post or are dead ... those are marked in the list (which is updated at 7 o'clock in the morning).