Why Berlin has to hold new elections in 455 electoral districts

In the 2021 federal election, there were errors in 455 Berlin electoral districts that require a new vote there – according to the Federal Constitutional Court. It also determined what could still pass in an election.

It has long been clear that not only the House of Representatives election, but also the 2021 federal election in Berlin will have to be repeated, at least in part. However, it was controversial in how many electoral districts this had to happen. A year ago in November, the Bundestag said that there would be new elections in 431 of over 2,000 electoral districts. The Union in the Bundestag thought that was not enough and wanted people to cast their vote again in around half of all electoral districts.

The Constitutional Court reviewed the Bundestag decision on the repeat election, i.e. looked at the protocols from the individual electoral districts from 2021 in detail. And, as the vice president of the court, Doris König, announced today, the result is: “The decision of the German Bundestag of November 10, 2022 is largely legal.”

However, predominantly lawful also means that the Bundestag did not do everything correctly when examining the electoral processes. The court says: Instead of 431 – as decided by the Bundestag – new elections must be held in 455 electoral districts. But not in more than 1,000, as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group had demanded. The constitutional judges look at the individual voting errors – and thus determine for the future what can still pass in an election and what cannot.

Even planning wasn’t right

They say that mistakes were already made in Berlin when preparing for the 2021 election. In principle, participation in an election should be made easier: “It would therefore have been necessary to equip the voting rooms with voting booths and ballot papers to an extent that would have made voting as smooth as possible without excessive waiting times.” The planning itself was not in order.

“On the other hand, excessively long waiting times as such are not to be viewed as a voting error…” So having to wait can be part of it. Unless – and the court sets a new limit – you have to wait longer than an hour. It is also not automatically a problem if the votes are only cast after 6 p.m. Only if voters are only allowed to vote after 6 p.m. can the election be invalidated.

Errors in around 15 percent of the electoral districts

Part of the election must therefore be repeated, just as in the first round, namely with first and second votes. According to the Federal Constitutional Court, re-election throughout Berlin is not necessary, as there were voting errors in only around 15 percent of the electoral districts.

The judges also explain why this has to be handled differently than in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives, which took place at the same time in September. It would have had to be completely repeated because other voting errors were made, for example ballot papers were simply copied.

There is already a date for the partial repeat of the federal election: February 11th. This was announced by state returning officer Stephan Bröchler in Karlsruhe. A lot of planning has already been started and can now be implemented.