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Mainz (dpa / lrs) - The Mayor of Mainz and chairman of the Rhineland-Palatinate City Council, Michael Ebling, has appealed to citizens to wait a few minutes in front of the polling stations for the state elections on March 14th.

"That is completely unusual in Germany," said the SPD politician of the German Press Agency in Mainz.

The hygiene concept of the state returning officer for the corona pandemic could lead to this in some places at peak times.

In Mainz there will be no more polling stations than usual. But he reckons that the proportion of postal voters, which has been increasing for years, will continue to increase - to up to 50 percent.

That is why the postal voting districts in Mainz have been increased significantly.

The concept of the regional returning officer provides for large polling stations to ensure a minimum distance of one and a half meters for all voters and election workers.

Everyone has to disinfect their hands before entering.

One-way regulations are intended to reduce the risk of infection.

Mask requirements apply in the polling station.

The 1.50 meter safety distance also applies to all members of the election boards.

Anyone who has direct contact with voters should be additionally protected with a spit protection wall.

The employees who handed out the voting papers also wore gloves, Ebling said.

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It makes sense to bring your own ballpoint pen with you in view of sustainability.

“But we also have a lot of disposable pens,” said Ebling.

The voting booths are regularly disinfected.

In order to keep the risk of infection low when counting the postal votes, Mainz chose the city's largest vocational school.

"There are a lot of rooms there," said Ebling.

“Then we don't have to paralyze the whole hall if someone has symptoms.

We want to come to a result on election evening. "

There are no bottlenecks in the search for election workers.

"There are enough available."

Regarding the election campaign in lockdown, Ebling said: "The seismograph is missing this time."

In the dial-up offers for online events, the parties are even more among themselves than in other face-to-face events during the election campaign.

"People want personal experience, they don't have that in video format - it's like television again."

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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210212-99-407550 / 2

Hygiene concept for polling stations