AfD’s Vote Share Slips After Postal Count
Germany’s Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD, saw its reported vote share in Saxony-Anhalt fall from 44.4% to 43.8% after mail-in ballots were counted, according to the source report. The party had received 51% of in-person votes on Sunday, but the postal count began at 6 p.m. local time and moved the totals in favor of every other party listed. That does not prove fraud, of course. It does prove that mail-in voting remains the political world’s favorite fog machine, because the moment results get complicated, trust starts coughing.
Germany’s Paper Ballot System Meets a Mail-In Surge
The report notes that German elections have long been viewed as fairly secure because they rely heavily on same-day, in-person voting, photo ID requirements, and paper ballots. It also points to Germany’s Supreme Court ban on digital voting machines, based on concerns that electronic voting is hard for citizens to verify. Still, Saxony-Anhalt saw mail-in ballots make up 25.7% of all votes cast. That is not a small footnote. It is a quarter of the table, and when one quarter behaves very differently from the other three, people are going to ask questions, even if officialdom prefers they submit those questions in triplicate.
Attorney Calls the Split “Improbable,” Not Proof
Attorney Dirk Schmitz, cited through an analysis published by alternative journalist Alexander Wallasch, described the results as a possible sign of “systematic manipulation,” while also saying it was not yet proof. He noted that mail-in voters and in-person voters may differ by age, education, residence, and political views. Still, he called the split “improbable.” His cited examples included the AfD taking 51.20% at the ballot box but 24.27% by mail, with larger gaps in some towns. In Mertendorf, the report says AfD received 63.2% in person and 24.5% by mail. In Hedersleben, it was 62.9% in person and 26.4% by mail.
Other Parties Gained Through Postal Votes
According to Schmitz’s figures cited in the report, every listed party except AfD performed better in postal voting than at the ballot box. The Christian Democrats received 24.30% of postal votes and 14.55% in person. The Social Democrats received 13.53% by mail and 7.69% in person. The Greens received 12.87% by mail and 7.44% in person. The Left received 11.03% by mail and 7.62% in person. The source also states that without mail-in ballots, AfD would have won 51% and an absolute majority. That is the kind of arithmetic that makes election managers reach for another committee meeting.
Activist Spending and a Criminal Complaint Add Heat
The report also says several left-wing NGOs, including Campact, were active in Saxony-Anhalt before the Sept. 6 election, with Campact said to have spent almost €3 million on voter mobilization. It further cites citizen journalist Jonas Greindberg, who filmed activists ahead of the vote. Separately, the report says Klaus-Lothar Bebber filed criminal charges with police in Dessau after finding that someone had allegedly voted in the name of his 95-year-old aunt, while the old-age home claimed her ballot had been shredded. That allegation, if confirmed, would be serious, not just another paperwork hiccup wearing a government badge.
Coalition Math Now Gets Messy
As the results currently stand, AfD would need to form a coalition with another party to govern, despite recording what the source describes as the best result in any German state election in the last 10 years. The report names either a leftist party or the Christian Democrats as possible coalition partners. That would leave voters watching the usual post-election ritual, where campaign promises enter a conference room and emerge speaking fluent compromise.
WE’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS! PLEASE COMMENT BELOW.
Leave a Comment