136 Misprinted Ballots Threaten Local Election’s Reserve Seats

A printing error derailed part of the vote count—now officials must decide if 136 lost ballots could rewrite who wins. The CDU stands to gain the most.

, and Administrator

2025 November 8 . 5:23 AM

1 min read

In this picture I can see group of people sitting on the chairs, there are few people standing,... — In this picture I can see group of people sitting on the chairs, there are few people standing, there are flags with the poles, there are lights, boards, and in the background there are curtains.

136 Misprinted Ballots Threaten Local Election’s Reserve Seats

A local election in our city portal has been marred by a significant error. 136 ballot papers were issued incorrectly, with votes from an adjacent electoral district mixed in. The municipal election committee will convene on September 22 to address this issue. The mistake occurred with ballot papers from electoral districts 21, 33, 35, and 36. These incorrect papers could not be counted on election night, and their number was deemed large enough to rule out any influence on direct mandates. However, the distribution of these invalidated votes could have affected the reserve list seats. The initial investigation suggests that if these 136 votes were allocated to the winning candidates on the reserve list, the CDU would have received the largest share. Nevertheless, even after redistributing these votes according to the overall city election result, the seat distribution remained unchanged. The incorrect ballot papers did not impact the direct mandates but could have influenced the reserve list seats. The municipal election committee will meet on September 22 to decide on the next steps, ensuring the integrity of the election process.