Cologne votes! Everything about the local elections on September 14, 2025!

Cologne votes! Everything about the local elections on September 14, 2025!

Cologne is in the starting blocks for the local elections on September 14, 2025. On this day, citizens have the opportunity to vote on crucial positions in the city administration. The focus is on the elections for the mayor, the Cologne City Council, the nine district councils and the Integration Council, which represents the interests of residents with a migrant background. A look at the number of voters shows that the number of eligible voters for the local elections is around 811,535.

As already T-Online reported, voters must pay attention to clear labeling when casting their votes. There will be different ballot papers in different colors for each election: white for the mayoral election, green for the city council, pink for the district representatives and light blue for the integration council - but only for people eligible to vote. One cross may be placed on each ballot paper, and if no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes in the mayoral election, a runoff election will take place on September 28, 2025.

Preparation for the election

The election notifications were delivered to households in Cologne between August 9th and 24th, 2025. Deutsche Post is responsible for around 1.1 million election notifications, including around 350,000 for the Integration Council. It is equally important that the voting room noted on the notification must be barrier-free.

To make voting easier, citizens can apply for postal voting documents online or by post. The deadline for this is September 12, 2025 at 3 p.m. Voting letters must be received by 4 p.m. on election day. Ballot voting will take place on September 14th from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., while direct voting began on August 11, 2025.

Candidate check

WDR offers an interesting offer with the digital candidate check, which is expected to be accessible in mid-August. There, voters can find out about the applicants for top municipal offices. These are available in short video statements in which they answer three identical questions in a maximum of 60 seconds. This is intended to give voters more orientation when making their voting decisions. Interested candidates who have not yet registered can send an email to familiencheck@wdr.de and submit their details in order to also take part.

In short: On September 14th, an important chapter for the city will be written in Cologne. All voters are called upon to cast their vote and actively participate in shaping their city.