Historic number of irregularities in 2021 German election

This is reported by the magazine Business Insider citing sources in “committee circles”. The number is a historic record for objections lodged against elections in Germany.

In the past, between 80 and 300 lawsuits were common, and only in 1994 was there a clear outlier with 1 450 objections. Most of the submissions against the election came from Berlin.

Four months ago, the chaos of the elections in the capital caused outrage across Germany: There were numerous problems in dozens of polling stations in the capital, including unreasonable queues, missing ballot papers and polling station relocations at short notice.

As a result, not only did the official concerned Petra Michaelis have to resign, but her colleague Georg Thiel also lodged an objection with the Bundestag against the outcome of the elections in several districts.

The election committee members, nine members of the Bundestag, must now check whether there was actually an electoral error that violated the federal election law, the federal electoral code or the constitution. The reported electoral error may have had an impact on the distribution of seats in the Bundestag.

While Michaelis denied this in a secret report to Thiel, the latter has signalled his objection to the Bundestag, noting that there were violations in several Berlin constituencies, involving tens of thousands of Berlin voters.

If the committee follows suit, the election could be repeated in these districts. The entire Bundestag would then have to decide with a simple majority on the basis of a corresponding recommendation from the Election Review Committee.