Votes by 8 p.m., not enough ballot papers and mix-ups. The numerous mishaps in the elections in Berlin are likely to have consequences.
When the last people in Berlin cast their votes, it was already dark outside, and the first predictions of the results of the Bundestag and House of Representatives elections flickered on the mobile phone screens.
Missing and swapped ballot papers and problems with subsequent deliveries had ensured that many voters cast their votes well after 6 p.m. In Wilmersdorf, for example, polling station 709 closed its door around 7.30 p.m. Elsewhere it was possibly even later, as users wrote on Twitter. Waiting time: Sometimes more than two hours.
Can that influence the voting decision?
Vote when the preliminary result is already known? According to the Dresden political scientist Hans Vorländer, this can definitely influence the voting decisions of individual people. “But that cannot be avoided. It is regulated in such a way that everyone who has arrived at a polling station by 6:00 pm is allowed to cast their vote, ”said the researcher from the Technical University of Dresden. The election management must make sure, however, that no one takes the place at 6:05 p.m.
When exactly the last vote was cast, the state election control could not say in the evening. The cause of the delays was also unclear, according to a spokesman. In the coming days, the problems with the process should be dealt with.
Sufficient ballot papers had been ordered, emphasized regional returning officer Petra Michaelis in the RBB: “I assume that the people who queued could still cast their votes without being influenced and that there were no voting errors.” Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel requested a “detailed report” from Michaelis on the breakdowns. This was announced by a spokesman in the evening.
Ballot papers were missing, hours of waiting
It first became known that voting slips were missing in some places – in three different elections with a total of six crosses, since a referendum was also being voted on – and subsequent deliveries continued. In some polling stations, ballot papers for house elections from the Friedrichshain / Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg / Wilmersdorf districts were swapped. The polling stations concerned had to close temporarily until the correct ballot papers were available.
The head of a polling station in Pankow said around 6 p.m. that fresh ballot papers for the federal election had only come in again. 100 people were waiting in front of the door, waiting time a good hour.
Many people waiting are angry because they cannot understand how there can be too few ballots, said the polling station manager. “But we talk to people. Nobody is abusive, ”she said. In her opinion, the election was not well prepared and more ballot papers were needed from the start.
Breakdowns are likely to have consequences
The political scientist Vorländer also said that the state election committee would have to put up with questions. In fact, Justice Senator Dirk Behrendt (Greens) already called in the evening to investigate the mishaps during the election more closely. He had “questions to those responsible in the districts and to the interior administration”. “I can not yet assess the extent of that,” said Behrendt on Sunday evening on the sidelines of his party’s election party. According to a report by “Business Insider”, Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel is also said to be alarmed.
It always happens that there are still elections at 6.30 p.m., said the Justice Senator. “It is certainly more serious if there were the wrong ballot papers, if it was not possible to vote at all.” You will have to look at that in detail in the next few days, because then the question will also arise whether this has had an effect on the result.
Did the marathon matter?
The simultaneous marathon run with road closures is said to have also stopped the supply with fresh ballot papers, was another allegation. The organizers of the race, which is known for its world records, immediately rejected this. “As the organizer of the BMW Berlin Marathon, we kept all our commitments to the institutions,” said Jürgen Lock, managing director of the marathon organizer SSC Events, according to the announcement. The processes were coordinated – like in 2017, when the federal election and marathon fell on one day.
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