Many were lost

Chaos and endless problems with polling cards

The number of absentee ballots in the National Council elections is higher than ever before, which also increases the problems.

(Bild: Karl Schöndorfer)

Because more and more people are accepting offers, there are also more problems and annoyance among voters. This refers to the polling cards, because quite a few were lost before the national elections, arrived with the wrong people or were packed incorrectly.

He wanted to do everything right and ended up not being able to vote: Johann O. (52) from Vorchdorf applied for his polling card for the National Council elections back in August. He did this via ID-Austria. "It worked like a charm. I was sent a confirmation link that the application had been successfully processed. Three weeks later, I received another email stating that the voting card would be sent to me in the next few days," he says. But then there was silence - the polling card never appeared.

The search for the card
"When I asked the relevant electoral authority, they told me that my polling card had already been sent on September 3," says the Vorchdorf resident. At the post office, he was told that there was no consignment number and no yellow slip (from the postman) because he had already confirmed his identity with ID-Austria. The municipal office also assured him that the card had been sent. However, it had not arrived by Saturday and Johann O. was therefore unable to exercise his right to vote.

Signed abroad
Incidentally, this is not an isolated case: the card of a 31-year-old woman from Ried was sent abroad and accidentally signed by an Austrian living abroad. This means that neither of them can vote.

In Steyr, a software error caused chaos with the polling cards, in Frankenmarkt a couple also received the wrong polling card and in some cases the wrong envelopes were apparently even used.

More and more applications
Magdalena Bigonski, head of the provincial electoral authority in Upper Austria, confirmed several problems in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper. "A major challenge for the municipalities is the increase in the number of polling cards. This is organizationally complex and was certainly not the case to the same extent in the past. The biggest issue is polling cards that are not delivered - but that is beyond our control," she says.

By way of illustration: in Vorchdorf, where Johann O.'s card did not turn up, 760 eligible voters applied for a polling card. In total, around 5900 people are allowed to vote there. And in Ried, where there are around 8000 eligible voters, there are almost 2000 people who want to vote by post.