In the face of the tight time frame for the upcoming federal election on February 23, North Rhine-Westphalia’s election manager, Monika Wißmann, has warned of risks associated with the mail-in vote. She recommends the “in-person mail-in vote” that many municipalities offer, saying that this way one can avoid the risk of postal delays, as she told the “Handelsblatt” on Thursday.
Those who still want to use the postal route, however, should submit their election application “immediately after receipt of the election notification” and deposit the bright red election ballot in the mailbox by February 19, the Wednesday before the election day, in order to do everything possible to ensure that their vote is counted.
Mainz-based political scientist Kai Arzheimer also sees a problem in the short time frame for the mail-in vote. According to him, a very large part of the population is already taking advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail, as he told the newspaper. “Especially for Germans living abroad, there is now the risk that the election ballots may not arrive in time and some eligible voters may not be able to effectively exercise their right to vote.