Election in Berlin – as little friction as possible – politics

Berlin’s state returning officer Stephan Bröchler assumes that the repeat election will be successful this Sunday. “I am confident that this election will work,” he told reporters on Tuesday. The state election authority and those responsible in the districts are “ready to go”. Bröchler pointed out that in an exceptional situation, Berlin had put a lot of effort into preparing for the repeat election within just 90 days. As examples, he cited more voting booths and more poll workers, as well as better logistics and pre-sorting of the ballot papers.

Bröchler repeated his prognosis that on February 12th everything might not run smoothly. That is not the case with any election. “We have made the elections as smooth as possible.” In November 2022, the Berlin Constitutional Court declared the elections to the House of Representatives and the district parliaments of September 26, 2021 to be invalid due to numerous mishaps and “serious systemic deficiencies”. Problems included incorrect, missing or hastily copied ballot papers, too few ballot boxes, the temporary closure of polling stations and long queues outside. In around half of the polling stations, people still voted after 6 p.m.

In his own words, Bröchler assumes that the turnout will be slightly lower than in 2021. In the 2021 election to the House of Representatives, 75.4 percent of those eligible to vote voted. At the same time, the federal elections and the referendum on the expropriation of large housing groups took place.