After the state election in Saxony, attempts to falsify postal votes were discovered in Dresden and Radeberg. Ballot papers are said to have been manipulated – in favor of the right-wing extremist Free Saxons. Election committees in Dresden and Bautzen have discussed the consequences for the election. The manipulations have therefore had no impact on the overall result.
The electoral committee in Dresden has confirmed 111 manipulated ballot papers. Election director Markus Blocher told MDR SACHSEN that a total of 112 suspicious ballot papers had been examined. According to Blocher, in all cases the ballot papers contained first and second votes for the Free Saxons.
“Votes that had already been cast were taped over in such a fine way that it was barely noticeable. Instead, the first and second votes for the Free Saxons were marked,” Blocher explained.
Slips cannot be declared valid
During the eight-hour meeting, the committee also discussed whether the original votes that were clearly visible on the manipulated ballot papers could be declared valid. The meeting was adjourned and legal advice was sought, Blocher explained. In the end, the committee decided against it.
There is no legal basis to make the votes valid again. That is very unfortunate, because there is also an emotional side to it. People say to themselves: it cannot be that there was fraud here and the votes are therefore invalid.
Markus Blocher | Election Officer Dresden
Blocher could not completely rule out the possibility that there were other manipulated ballots among the ballots cast. In this context, he stressed the scale of the election in Dresden, with 6,000 volunteer election workers in 619 electoral districts. It was impossible to check everything. The electoral committee carried out further spot checks on Thursday, but found no other suspicious ballots. In the end, the election result for the Dresden constituencies was officially confirmed. There was no change in the distribution of seats, only the absolute number of votes was corrected.
All constituencies in Dresden affected
At the beginning of the committee, Dresden’s election officer Markus Blocher reported on the manipulation discovered in Dresden. According to this, 112 suspicious ballot papers were discovered in several postal voting districts. Among others, the electoral districts 36011 (29 ballot papers) and 36012 (56 ballot papers) in Langebrück were affected. However, the alleged fraud also extended to the other constituencies, said Blocher.
Suspicious ballot papers discovered in Langebrück
Already on election day, the electoral boards of the two constituencies reported “anomalies in some ballot papers”. On Monday, the “systematic nature of the manipulation” finally became clear. This also showed how professionally the ballot papers had been manipulated.
All affected ballot papers from the postal voting districts in Langebrück have already been declared invalid. The decision for the remaining ballot papers is likely to be the same, said Blocher. However, the manipulations will not have any impact on the overall result of the state election.
Most of the manipulated ballot papers were found in postal voting districts in Dresden-Langebrück. These were declared invalid,
Crosses on postal ballot papers pasted over
According to the Attorney General’s Office, unknown persons had cast a total of 126 postal ballots in favour of the right-wing extremist Small party Free Saxony manipulated. On postal ballot papers, the cross that had already been marked was supposedly covered with a thin film and the Free Saxons were marked instead.
In Radeberg, 14 postal ballot papers were falsified in favor of the Free Saxons. The postal voting committees have already declared the ballot papers invalid, as the spokeswoman for the Bautzen district office, Sabine Rötschke, announced in response to a request from MDR SACHSEN. The Bautzen district electoral committee also confirmed this on Thursday afternoon. At the end of the meeting, the committee confirmed the decision of the postal voting committees: The 14 ballot papers are invalid, the election result has been officially confirmed.
Suspicion of manipulation also with ballot papers in Dohna
On Thursday, another allegedly manipulated ballot paper was discovered in Dohna in the Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains district. According to the district office, the voting fields for other candidates were covered with paper and the Free Saxons were entered. The district election committee will decide on electoral consequences on Friday. Investigators will also look into the matter, it was said.
The state electoral committee had announced that it would probably decide on electoral consequences on September 13.
