Exclusive: “Organizational failure” in the election – how many voters were not properly checked?

In his comprehensive election complaint, which Marcel Luthe submitted to the Bundestag last week, the chairman of the Good Governance Union (GGG) addresses a series of glitches and irregularities. These could have had a decisive influence on the outcome of the federal election . The Berliner Zeitung has exclusively obtained the 80-page document, including its appendix. Our editorial team recently reported on errors in the mailing of postal voting documents to so-called Germans living abroad. Many eligible voters living abroad who had registered for the election received their mail too late or not at all.

Another point in the challenge concerns a problem familiar from the US : the "identification of voters to avoid multiple voting." Different US states have different rules for proof of identity, and an official photo ID, a "voter ID," is not required everywhere. This has already sparked controversy.

According to Luthe's research, identity verification was also handled differently and carelessly in German polling stations – in his opinion, sometimes illegally. This led to a distortion of the election results, according to the document, which is now before the Bundestag's Electoral Scrutiny Committee. Furthermore, "the unforgeable voting notifications were issued in a mass process, including with the names and addresses of citizens who had already died." Furthermore, notifications have repeatedly been lost in the past, sometimes hundreds of them.

The former member of the Berlin House of Representatives writes: "People who receive such a voting notification can use it to cast at least one additional vote in addition to their own vote in all polling stations without a 'voter ID', or to give third parties this opportunity." "Multiple voting" was sometimes possible because postal voting documents could also have been requested and used via the notifications when mailing them to deceased persons.

Stuttgart in the federal election: Control only in case of doubt

Equality in elections – one of the five central principles of voting – is "no longer guaranteed in practice in Germany," Marcel Luthe writes in his complaint. He bases this, among other things, on significant differences in identity checks at polling stations. The legal system stipulates that a voter must show identification at a polling station unless, by way of exception, they are known to the local officials.

Luthe cites an example from Stuttgart : There, the city informed the electoral boards that a person presenting a voter permit should "only be checked with an ID in cases of doubt." However, these notifications are not forgery-proof documents. What makes matters worse is that they are sent in bulk—and in Berlin, there aren't even any statistics on how many of these documents were created and sent.

Nevertheless, a leaflet from the city of Stuttgart states that a voter notification is generally sufficient to establish identity. Luthe argues that this regulation is "incompatible with the principle of the highest personal nature of the election and the relevant, clear provisions of electoral law." It allows for abuse – also because the notifications are sent without proof of delivery and, in the event of loss, could be used "by unauthorized third parties." The Stuttgart letter is attached to the election complaint. According to Luthe, numerous municipalities act similarly.

Marcel Luthe calls for investigations by the Election Review Committee

It's not unusual for voting permits to go missing in the mail. There have been repeated incidents like this in the past. Even after this federal election, citizens reported not having received their postal voting documents, for example. Luthe cites an example from Dortmund , where a man waited in vain for the mail. The local authority stated that it was not possible to confirm receipt of the postal voting documents – nor could they provide any information as to whether the man had voted himself. "This makes it naturally impossible to prove fraudulent voting in the name of a third party," Luthe writes.

One could now be content with claiming these are "isolated cases." Luthe, however, calls for a systematic review to determine the extent of these errors. "Here, too, the Electoral Review Committee's own investigations would be appropriate, especially since even a few thousand votes nationwide could have a significant impact on the distribution of seats in the 2025 federal election if the BSW overcomes the threshold." The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which fell just 9,500 votes short of entering parliament, has also filed an election complaint. The Berliner Zeitung reported on the party's vote-seeking efforts .

Marcel Luthe draws attention to further phenomena in his challenge. There are, for example, "a large number of cases" "in which eligible voters were told at the polling station that they had already voted and their name had been 'checked off'." This happened several times at a polling station in Bad Kreuznach , Rhineland-Palatinate. Luthe names a citizen who was subsequently allowed to vote. He writes: "If in – even several – cases a voter allegedly already voted, but in reality did not, and was then allowed to vote 'once again,' logically there must have been more ballots in the ballot box than voters whose names were 'checked off' according to the electoral board."

However, according to Luthe, electoral authorities only rarely investigate such cases. This was demonstrated by the botched 2021 Berlin election, in the aftermath of which Luthe also pointed out errors. Ultimately, the parliamentary election had to be repeated in its entirety, and the federal election in part. Now the chairman of the GGG writes that "all transcripts from all ballot boxes and all postal voting stations nationwide" should be obtained by the Electoral Review Committee. This could reveal further electoral errors.

The former MP's election complaint states: "The minutes will show that in the aforementioned polling station – and nationwide, based on the experience of the 2021 Berlin elections, in about every 15th polling station – there were more ballot papers in the ballot box than voting entries were made in the electoral register." These errors seriously violated the integrity of the election.

Finally, there are the dead: "There is still no comparison with the death register before the 'mass process' of sending out voting notifications," writes Luthe. Deceased people were already granted voting rights in Berlin's botched 2021 election. This, too, can lead to abuse. The challenge states: "The right to vote in Berlin still extends to residents in our cemeteries – or to third parties who were able to exercise their right to vote on their behalf by postal vote."

Marcel Luthe cites several cases in which relatives have received the postal voting documents of deceased relatives. Furthermore, postal voting documents could be requested via election notifications sent to deceased individuals. Here, too, a systematic review by the relevant Bundestag committee is possible, Luthe said.

Regarding the differences in identity checks and errors in the handling of election documents, Luthe concludes: "The entire organization of the elections to the 21st German Bundestag was not designed to eliminate these (avoidable) errors, but rather, through lax organization, actually encouraged them. Therefore, there is an organizational failure on the part of the public administration bodies responsible for conducting the election."

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