Frankfurt / Wiesbaden (dpa / lhe) – Two weeks before the federal election on September 26, many Hessian cities are reporting record participation in postal votes. Never before have so many corresponding applications been recorded in a federal election, said the head of the Frankfurt Citizens’ Registration Office, Oliver Becker, of the German Press Agency. So far, almost 150,000 postal voting documents have been issued in the Main metropolis – twice as many as at the same time before the 2017 election.
The number also doubled in Giessen. Four years ago, the postal voter rate in the central Hessian university town was almost 30 percent. “There are many reasons for this enormous development,” said Becker. On the one hand, the corona pandemic is driving. In addition, the number of postal voters has risen steadily in earlier elections. A new record was set in the local elections last spring.
In Fulda in the east of the country, a share of up to 45 percent is expected. “Since experience has shown that voter turnout in the Bundestag election is higher than in local elections, the absolute number of postal voters can be assumed to be a new record,” said the city.
In the state capital Wiesbaden, too, the trend is moving away from the polling station. More than 61,000 people have already registered to vote by mail. In 2017 there were a total of almost 45,000 applications, a rate of 30.9 percent. A similar picture in Kassel: Almost 41,000 postal votes have been received so far – in 2017 there were a total of around 30,000.
Most postal voters take their time before they cast their votes. In Fulda, for example, every fourth postal ballot has been returned so far. In Kassel the proportion is 35 percent and in Wiesbaden 43 percent.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210911-99-175062 / 2
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