Voting by mail in Germany’s parliamentary elections began Monday, six weeks before the Sept. 26 elections.
This was reported by Reuters.
An official spokesman for the Federal Election Commissioner confirmed that mail-in ballots will be sent out starting Monday.
Sociologists and party strategists expect a third or more of voters to vote by mail in this election as fears of a fourth wave of the coronavirus grow. In the last federal election in 2017, a record 28.6 percent of votes were cast by mail.
“We’re going to have a two-stage election campaign,” said Matthias Jung of polling agency Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, as parties seek to mobilize their supporters to vote by mail before trying to attract floating voters before Election Day.
According to Jung, older people are more likely to vote by mail than younger voters, and Angel Merkel’s conservative alliance tends to excel among older voters.
As a reminder, Germany’s Social Democratic Party had surpassed the Green Party six weeks before the Bundestag elections to come in second place.
The current leader of Angela Merkel’s party Christian Democratic Union Armin Lachet has the least support in the latest ratings since May.
The SPD candidate Olaf Scholz is in first place in terms of support, with 25 percent of those surveyed willing to vote for him.
