“Irresponsibility, chaos, shame, slovenliness, scandal … What happened on September 26 – the day of elections to the Bundestag – in Berlin, could be expected in some” banana republic “, but not in the capital of a highly developed Germany …”
This is how the German press comments on violations and flaws in the voting procedure at polling stations in Berlin. But the matter may not be limited to criticism of the city authorities and the already accomplished resignation of the chairman of the city election commission. It is possible that voting in some districts of Berlin will have to be repeated.
Bundestag, Senate and District elections, plus a referendum
The voters of Berlin, which has the status of one of the 16 federal states, voted last Sunday not just once, but four times. Firstly, for the candidates running for the Bundestag, secondly, for the Senate, that is, the city parliament, and thirdly, for the regional authorities. And fourthly, on the same day, a referendum was held in the city on the expropriation of apartments from large housing concerns.
Ballots for voting for the Bundestag deputies were supposed to be dropped into one ballot box, and all the rest into the other.
As a result, each voter had to fill out several ballots. And if the choice in favor of this or that candidate, this or that party could be determined quite easily, then the question submitted to the referendum puzzled many. The invitation – the announcement of the elections – and the envelope was usually opened at the polling station – was accompanied by a whole brochure, which contained a dozen pages of arguments from supporters and opponents of expropriation.
Voters read the brochure while sitting in the voting booth. And time went on. There are only two booths in many areas – due to coronavirus restrictions – only two. The lines were getting longer. As a result, it turned out that in many precincts people did not have time to vote before the official end of the elections at 6 pm and filled out their ballots, already knowing the results of the exit polls, which actually should not be. It’s good that the weather was sunny that day. If it would rain, many would not wait at all to enter the polling station …
Shortage of ballots and a marathon
But this was far from the only flaw in the elections in the capital of Germany. Long queues lined up in front of some polling stations also because they ran out of ballots in the middle of the day. Berlin did not expect such a high voter turnout and did not take into account the fact that against the background of difficulties in filling out ballots, voters more often than usual will ask for new ones, realizing that they have put a cross in the wrong place.
Many streets in the center of Berlin were closed due to the marathon
In principle, quickly bringing up additional ballots from a warehouse in the same area is not a problem, it’s a matter of a few minutes. But on this day, a marathon was held in Berlin and many streets in the central part of the city were closed. I had to wait for the runners to run.
The international sports calendar does not allow the Berlin marathon to be rescheduled to a day other than the last Sunday in September, and the city authorities did not want to cancel it for the second time in a row after being canceled due to the coronavirus in 2020, despite the warnings of experts.
Election organizers were not up to par
In addition, some polling stations found a surprisingly large number of invalid ballots in ballot boxes for Senate and District elections.
It turned out, for example, that ballots destined for the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf region had reached the polling stations in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. And even if these ballots were filled out absolutely correctly, they are considered invalid if they are dropped into the ballot box in the wrong area. According to the capital’s media company RBB, this situation occurred at 99 of the 2,257 polling stations in Berlin.
There were long lines in front of many polling stations in Berlin
For some of the candidates running for the Berlin Senate, this confusion may have played a key role. Thus, the representative of the Left Party in Berlin’s Pankow district lacked only 30 votes to win a direct mandate, and the “green” candidate in Wilmersdorf – only eight.
Berlin election organizers were aware of the risk of ballot confusion, but they chose only one preventive measure: notes were placed on the stacks of ballots for various districts of the city, urging attention.
“Obviously, the challenges on this particular election day were underestimated,” jurist Christian Waldhoff of Berlin’s Humboldt University commented in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung. … Smart people would have realized on the threshold that all this could be very problematic and would have reacted in advance. “
Recount of votes or re-elections?
The final official results of the German elections are due to be announced on October 14, 2021. According to the current legislation, any German voter can appeal against them in the Federal Constitutional Court when it comes to the election of members of the Bundestag.
Stefan Harbart, President of the Federal Constitutional Court
This has happened in the history of Germany, but this court has never annulled the results of federal elections. Even if the judges find the complaint of irregularities justified, Federal Constitutional Court Chairman Stephan Harbarth explained to readers of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, voting day problems in some polling stations do not necessarily threaten the bottom line, and not every procedural flaw should lead to an announcement elections are invalid. After all, it is also necessary to take into account the interests of the already elected composition of the Bundestag, he added.
The legal situation is different with the elections of deputies of the Berlin Senate and regional authorities. Only the parties participating in the election campaign or running candidates have the right to appeal against their results in the Land Constitutional Court. In this case, the court can either reject the complaint, or declare the voting results invalid – both in Berlin as a whole and at individual polling stations, or demand a recount of votes.
In the aforementioned cases in Pankow and Wilmersdorf, it is very likely, and even without a court decision, at least the latter option. Those who have this right will be able to file legal claims only after the announcement of the final official election results in Berlin, which will also happen only on October 14.
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