CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet has cast his votes for the federal election. In doing so, however, he folded the ballot incorrectly. So bystanders could see who he voted. He does not have to fear any consequences.
Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet voted on Sunday at his place of residence in Aachen. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister cast his vote for the federal election shortly after 11 a.m. in the morning. Laschet and his wife Susanne came to the polling station in a municipal Catholic elementary school.
However, Laschet folded his ballot incorrectly when casting his vote. When Laschet threw the note in the urn, bystanders could see what he had ticked. Photographers captured the moment in pictures. Who he chose should be clear. His wife had also folded the slip of paper incorrectly.
Ballot papers may not be thrown in openly
Because of the secrecy of the election, it is not allowed to openly throw in one’s ballot paper. The voter must “fold it in such a way that its vote is not recognizable,” says the Federal Returning Officer ‘s website. Should the vote be recognizable, the electoral committee would have to reject the voter. Typically, the polling station will tell you how to fold the slip of paper. Laschet’s vote will not be invalid, said the Federal Returning Officer on Twitter in the afternoon. “If there is a misfolding, the electoral board will distribute a new ballot paper. If the ballot paper still gets into the ballot box, it can no longer be sorted out and is valid,” says a tweet. In addition, there is no evidence of any influence on the voters, since a politician “has elected his own party as expected”.
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The Union candidate said the general election would decide Germany’s direction in the next few years. “And that’s why every vote counts,” he said in front of the polling station. He hopes that everyone will exercise their right to vote “so that democrats can form a new government in the end”.
In the Aachen district of Burtscheid, Laschet had made his last campaign appearance before the vote in front of several hundred supporters with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) the day before.
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