In the face of the brief deadline for the 2025 German federal election, Thuringia’s state election director Holger Poppenhäger recommends against postal voting.
According to a “Bild” (Monday edition) quote, Poppenhäger said, “The postal voting period is very short this time. We can only dispatch the materials to voters in some regions on February 10. It’s not certain that the post office will deliver the ballots in one or two days. Due to the new law, it could even take three days. We should therefore assume a low postal voting turnout.”
Poppenhäger advises those who want to ensure their vote counts and is not left in a ballot box on Monday after the election to either vote in person or fill out the forms immediately after receiving them and send them back. He also warns of pitfalls: “In some postal boxes, the last collection is already on Friday evening. Ballots that are only inserted on Saturday will not arrive in time.”
Thuringia alone needs 20,000 to 25,000 election officials for the federal election on February 23. As a result, Poppenhäger says that several Thuringian cities have significantly increased the payment (refreshment money) for election officials. Moreover, the election committees will be double-staffed, and the work will be divided into morning and afternoon shifts to ensure that replacements can be found in case of illness.