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Queue in front of the 2021 polling station in Berlin: “An extensive and time-consuming collection of evidence”
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance / dpa
In the traffic light, opinions differ about what consequences should be drawn from the mishaps in the 2021 federal election in Berlin. In parts of the capital – in 455 electoral districts – the vote will be repeated this Sunday.
This was preceded by a historically long process - with the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court shortly before Christmas last year as the end point. The Bundestag received around 1,700 complaints about election irregularities. A year later, Parliament decided by a traffic light majority to repeat the election in 431 electoral districts. There were lawsuits against this in Karlsruhe, which the Federal Constitutional Court decided on in December 2023.
The curious thing: The House of Representatives election, which took place in Berlin on the same day as the federal election and was also chaotic in many places, was repeated in February 2023 - completely. The decision was made by the Berlin State Constitutional Court.
The Greens in the Bundestag now want to prevent excessive waiting times for decisions on election complaints in the future. “It became clear to me during the election verification process that this was not suitable for cases like the one in Berlin,” said Till Steffen, Parliamentary Managing Director of the parliamentary group, to SPIEGEL. "We should take advantage of the current attention and tackle reform as quickly as possible."
His suggestion: In certain cases, the Bundestag could hand over the election audit directly to the Federal Constitutional Court, for example if “extensive and time-consuming evidence collection” is required.
However, the initiative is not met with much approval in the other two traffic light factions – SPD and FDP.
Johannes Fechner, general counsel for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, admits that it is “unsatisfactory” that the by-election is only taking place now. “This has to be faster in the future and we want to discuss with the Union how we can speed up the election verification process,” said the MP. Fechner is certain that future election audit procedures will be decided “definitely more quickly.” Finally, with its landmark ruling, Karlsruhe has now clarified in detail constitutionally “how voting errors can be defined.”
FDP expert Stephan Thomae told SPIEGEL that improvements to the election verification process are currently being discussed openly. On the other hand, he believes it is wrong not to “dispose of procedures that have been tried and tested in the past solely with regard to a single, highly problematic case.” There are now clear standards: "In this respect, the Bundestag's election audit committee would also be better prepared for future cases."
The election on September 26, 2021 was chaotic in many polling stations in the capital: there were long queues and waiting times, incorrect or missing ballot papers. Polling stations had to close temporarily or remained open until well after 6 p.m. - so votes were cast long after forecasts and projections had been circulating.