Status: 25.01.2021 9:15 a.m.
Hamburg is preparing for the federal election under corona conditions. The state election office hopes that the pandemic will be largely contained by September 26th. But it has to be prepared.
Coincidence or not: Five days before the federal election, all citizens should have received a vaccination offer, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) announced last Thursday. But Hamburg’s regional returning officer Oliver Rudolf still has to play it safe. In an interview with NDR 90.3, he said: “If contact restrictions still apply, we want to be prepared for them.”
More postal voters expected
Hamburg’s state election officer Oliver Rudolf (archive photo) expects that there will be more postal votes in the federal election.
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This has significant consequences: the polling stations are narrow. It will be difficult to find 14,000 election workers in Hamburg under Corona conditions. So far there have been many older people.
In the 2017 federal election in Hamburg, there were 37 percent postal voters. The state returning officer expects their number to increase. Then Hamburg would need more election documents and more postal voting directors.
Too few accessible polling stations
One problem is already evident: most recently there were polling stations in 83 old people’s and nursing homes. You are now canceling for fear of infection. This means that there are a lot of barrier-free restaurants missing.
AUDIO: Hamburg prepares federal elections under corona conditions (1 min)
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The parties also face problems: the candidates must actually be presented in face-to-face meetings. And that until mid-July. Additional costs for hygiene protection in the Bundestag election have not yet been planned.
Regional Returning Officer Rudolf presented his preparations to the constitutional committee of the citizens. The MPs agreed that they hoped the Corona preparations would not have to come into play.
Further information
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