Going to the ballot box seems to be becoming increasingly unattractive.
In the district of Munich, every second person votes in the federal election by post.
District
- Postal voting is becoming increasingly popular in the district. According to the district office, around half of the voters have so far applied for postal voting documents. "The regional election management estimates the proportion of postal voters at over 50 percent, which also corresponds to the feedback we have received from the municipalities," says Franziska Herr from the district office. The fact that more and more citizens are learning to value postal votes is apparently not only due to the pandemic. The trend towards postal voting was already evident beforehand. Perhaps the voters simply like to deal with the lists in peace, or find it convenient to have dealt with the matter with the two crosses in advance.
In Unterhaching, 9310 of around 17,500 eligible voters have applied for postal voting in the town hall by Tuesday, as of 12.30 p.m.
Most of them have already made their crosses: “Around 8,000 election papers came back,” estimates Unterhaching's election manager Wolfgang Ziolkowski.
"Big challenge" to find enough election workers
In Unterschleißheim, too, the trend towards postal voting is around 50 percent.
"There are around 18,500 eligible voters, and up to yesterday a little over 9,000 postal ballot papers had been sent out," said City Hall spokesman Steven Ahlrep.
There has been an adjustment towards more postal voting stations in the municipalities: This time there are 20 postal voting stations and 16 ballot boxes in Unterschleißheim.
As always, it is “a great challenge” to find enough election workers, “but in fact we have won enough volunteers.” 288 helpers are available.
The expense allowance, which was raised to 100 euros in February, "certainly helped," says Ahlrep, "but many people are interested in helping here."
"Hope we get home relatively early"
212 volunteers help in Unterhaching on election Sunday. The church has even more commitments than it did four years ago. "We have added two people to the teams in the polling stations in order to ensure the necessary hygiene," says Office Manager Simon Hötzl. For example, the voting booths are disinfected, and all election boards sit behind plexiglass panes. Unterhaching pays the volunteers 70 euros as compensation. Hötzl has a very clear assumption that it is easier to find enough volunteers before federal elections: “The federal elections are very relaxed compared to the local elections. The willingness of election workers in Unterhaching is traditionally good, we have a very stable crowd and can occupy all polling stations. ”The proportion of postal voting stations in Unterhaching has also increased.it has been increased from five to nine, and the polling stations have been reduced from 20 to 16. Even in the event that helpers are unreliable and jump out at short notice, things are taken care of: Wolfgang Ziolkowski has an emergency list in the drawer.
The mood is good, says Simon Hötzl, “the training courses have started and will drag on for the week.
We hope to get home and watch TV relatively early. "
All information about the federal election 2021 in the Munich district can be found here on our overview page.
