If what happened in Berlin on election day had happened somewhere in Eastern Europe, it would have been: typical.
But the fatal mixture of insufficient preparation and sloppiness on election day shows how vulnerable the central act of legitimation of democracy can be in Germany too.
If only because it cannot be determined with absolute certainty whether the incidents had an impact on the result, trust in this choice has been undermined.
What about the voters who were sent away for missing ballots and might not come back?
The damage was exacerbated by the fact that afterwards attempts were made to downplay the incidents and shift responsibility on various levels, from district election officers to state election officers to Berlin politics.
Against this background, it is the right signal that the federal election authorities are now suing the results in two districts themselves.
However, the investigation must also take place on another level at which all dimensions of this fiasco can be examined, ideally through a parliamentary committee of inquiry.
And other federal states would be well advised to take a closer look and not say: typically Berlin.