© dpa
Berlin's state returning officer Stephan Bröchler hopes that as many voters as possible will cast their votes at polling stations on election day.
"My advice is to vote by ballot as the number one option," Bröchler told the German Press Agency. "And if you want to vote by post, you should apply for a postal vote as soon as you receive your polling card and not leave the documents lying around for long once they arrive."
Bröchler sees the option of going to one of the district's postal voting centers with the documents and voting there as a sensible alternative. "This is the safest option under postal voting conditions." There are such postal voting centers in all twelve Berlin districts, often directly in the district office. The state returning officer fears that postal voting could be tight this time. The mailing of voting notifications for the early Bundestag election begins on January 13. However, the postal voting documents including the ballot paper will not be sent out until February 10 and must be returned by election day on February 23.
If they arrive too late, the vote is not counted. It is not known how many votes were lost in this way in past elections. "I would be very interested in us collecting this data. This has not been possible so far for staffing reasons," said the state election officer. For the postal voting period of just two weeks, it will be ensured that every postal vote can be counted. The postal voting stations will be open from February 10. "We are in talks with the districts about the opening hours," said Bröchler.
He would like to see as few postal voters as possible this time than last time. "But we have a trend running through the elections in the state of Berlin and at federal level that the proportion of postal voters is increasing and tending towards 50 percent."