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In March, almost eleven million people can vote for state parliaments in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. These are the first state elections during the crown pandemic. How can that work?
By Dietmar Telser, tagesschau.de
In Rhineland-Palatinate, the requirements are already clear: When the state parliament is elected on March 14, election officials will likely sit behind Plexiglass glasses and wear face shields. There should be enough space in the voting rooms to allow a distance of one and a half meters. Voters must wear a mask. They are only allowed to briefly remove protection at the polling station once, so that they too can be identified.
And even if the crown situation worsens significantly, there is a choice. The regional electoral committee is already printing 3.2 million vote-by-mail ballots. That’s more than there are eligible voters in the state. No one would necessarily have to go to the polling station to vote. According to a change in law and order, the election could even take place exclusively as a vote-by-mail.
Elections in six federal states
Around eleven million people in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg will be able to vote for the state parliament on March 14. These are the first state elections in Germany during the crown pandemic. It is probably not the last sign of the virus. Because even if the approval of a vaccine is imminent, it is already clear that not all people in Germany can get vaccinated at the beginning of the year. Thuringia will vote on April 25, Saxony-Anhalt will follow on June 6, and in the autumn it will be state parliaments in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Bundestag.
Basic concepts for an emergency
Precautions have long been taken not only in Rhineland-Palatinate. In Saxony-Anhalt, the state electoral law was amended by a joint legislative proposal of the CDU, the SPD and the Greens, so that only postal votes would be possible in an emergency. A change is also being discussed in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the SPD, FDP, Die Grünen and the opposition CDU are expected to pass the bill in December, but the AfD rejects it.
Not only was the country able to react better to the threatening situation, CDU politician Matthias Lammert said at the first reading in state parliament. Citizens do not have to choose between “health protection and the right to vote.”
Baden-Württemberg rejects any relief
That sounds plausible, but you see it differently in the neighboring country. While the Christian Democrats even put forward the legislative proposal in Rhineland-Palatinate, their party colleagues in Baden-Württemberg denied their green coalition partner a similar approach. “We want to get the conscious act of requesting voting documents by mail,” says Rainer Wehaus, spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group. He fears that if these “were distributed to all households as unsolicited advertising brochures,” it could change the character of the election. In any case, Wehaus sees little advantage in this procedure. Relief for municipalities is limited, he says. Because there will be no obligation to vote by mail. “In any case, cities and municipalities must guarantee an election in March.” In addition, there are doubts about the constitutionality of the project.
Reservations about voting by mail?
When it comes to changes in the law, the question always arises of how much the character of the election can change. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, it should be possible to send voting documents by mail with the election application without an application. Candidates for state lists, if the change in law has been approved, also only have to find 520 signatures instead of 2,080 supporting signatures.
The Rhineland-Palatinate state election official assures that ballot boxes will remain the standard choice. But the choice would be different. Election researcher Thorsten Faas points out that secret voting at polling stations is ultimately also an instrument to ensure free elections. “By voting at home by letter, it is not possible to guarantee and enforce to the same extent that everyone can make a secret ballot decision.” In the past, however, a high percentage of votes by mail had been registered, with no doubts about general acceptance, according to Faas.
However, an impact on the election result should not be ruled out in the case of an exclusive mail-in vote. “Of course, for some parties we see a higher proportion of voters by mail than those who vote in attendance and vice versa,” says Faas. “Distrust in mail ballots is higher in some places than others, so AfD voters in particular vote less often by letter.” Only these findings would not be 1: 1 transferable if there were suddenly universal postal votes.
Ultimately, who decides the postal vote at what point should also be decisive for legitimation. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the bill stipulates that the regional teller can order this at least 45 days before the election day at the request of the respective district teller and in agreement with the Ministry of the Interior.
And in the federal elections?
Regardless of how the federal states conduct their elections, this is closely monitored in Berlin. Even if there is still a long way to go before the fall federal election. “We are closely monitoring how the elections are being organized at the municipal level,” says Bastian Stemmer, a consultant for the office of the Federal Return Officer. Stemmer regards the organization of the Bundestag election as a vote by mail in individual electoral districts, if legal requirements are created, at least “feasible.”
What if elections can now take place without big crown buds? In Rhineland-Palatinate, this too should be viewed in stride. The more than one million postal voting envelopes do not have to be shredded. In an emergency, they can also be used for federal elections. This time they are allowed to have the same color as an exception.
