Solingen Runoff Sees Low Mail-in Voter Turnout at 73.3%

Tight postal deadlines and regional trends contributed to the low return rate. The city's efforts to replace documents helped some voters participate.

, and Administrator

2025 October 30 . 7:04 AM

1 min read

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Solingen Runoff Sees Low Mail-in Voter Turnout at 73.3%

Solingen's mayoral runoff election saw a lower-than-expected return rate for mail-in ballots, with only 73.3% of voters casting their votes by post. This is significantly lower than the 81% return rate in the 2015 runoff and the 91.38% in the main election that year. The city issued replacement documents up to Saturday, September 27, at 12 noon to help voters who were still waiting for their election polls. A total of 16,415 returned ballots were counted, with an additional 1,348 voters using their requested ballots to cast their votes in person at the polling station. This resulted in 17,763 votes by mail. However, 6,466 eligible voters did not use their mail-in voting rights. The city attributed this low return rate partly to tight postal deadlines, with election documents for the runoff being sent out as late as Friday, September 19. Similar return rates were reported in neighboring cities of Wuppertal and Remscheid, indicating a regional trend. It is worth noting that runoff elections typically have lower turnout than main elections. In the 2015 runoff, the return rate was 81%, compared to 91.38% in the main election that year. Only about one in four applicants did not return their election polls, meaning they could not vote. The city's efforts to replace lost or missing documents up to the deadline helped some voters participate. However, the overall return rate of 73.3% highlights the challenge of encouraging voter participation in runoff elections.