What is a Dutch “stembureau”?
Leuke stemlocaties bij de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
A stembureau is a Dutch polling station. The Netherlands runs an old voting tradition of placing stembureaus in unusual public spaces: windmills, churches, schoolgebouwen, retirement homes, bibliotheken, sports halls, and even decommissioned trams or boten. Gemeenten compete informally for the most photogenic location every election cycle. Polls open at 7:30am and close at 9pm; turnout for gemeenteraadsverkiezingen (municipal elections) hovers around 50%, lower than for national or provinciale elections. Dutch ballots are paper, hand-counted at the stembureau, with results published on the same evening.
In this clip, NOS Jeugdjournaal covers election day: “Om half 8 gingen stembureaus open. Hier in Nijmegen stond toen al een rij.”
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Harder words in this video
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Dutch election coverage and turnout journalism (Kiesraad, NOS, De Volkskrant)
- ▸In Dutch gemeente-policy writing (VNG, Trouw, NRC)
- ▸In Dutch primary-school civics content (Het Klokhuis, Schooltv, Prodemos)
- ▸In Dutch election-day photo features (AD, Het Parool, De Telegraaf)