This year, the lakeside house hosted many exciting events in preparation for the district and state elections in Berlin. Firstly, we were regularly visited by politicians. Secondly, several young people trained as election observers and were on duty on election day.
This year, for the first time in Berlin, citizens aged 16 and older were eligible to vote. This resulted in a particularly high number of first-time voters in Berlin. It is important to us that all voters have the opportunity to go to the polls in an informed manner. Therefore, this year we invited politicians from all democratic parties represented in the House of Representatives to seminars. They spoke with young people about what it means to be a member of parliament. During these discussions, the young people always had the opportunity to ask the politicians questions about topics of particular interest to them. These included, for example, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, high rents, and anxieties about the future, as well as the daily life of a politician and the challenges involved.
Shortly before the election on September 20th, an event was held in cooperation with "„Election watching“A seminar on the topic of "election observation" was held. Participants learned about the importance of free, secret, and equal elections. To introduce the topic effectively, a simulated election was conducted at the beginning, in which the process and the result were manipulated. After everyone understood the importance of voters' rights, the participants were prepared for their task on election day.
With a letter of support from wannseeFORUM, their newfound knowledge, and the "Vote Monitor" app, the participants went in groups to different polling stations, where they were warmly welcomed. They then used the app to record everything they observed. The participants gained the impression that the elections were free, secret, and conducted uniformly, but that there were also differences between the various polling stations, which they documented.
During the evaluation meeting, participants jointly collected suggestions for simplifying the elections, such as the idea of issuing two ballot papers: one for direct candidates and one for the party list. They also suggested taking greater care in removing party advertising material around polling stations and improving signage to some polling stations. To ensure these suggestions were not overlooked, they were forwarded to the responsible district election office.
In the end, all participants agreed that they found election observation important and could imagine acting as election helpers in the future.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the politicians who came to our wannseeFORUM and the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district office, which supported the election observation.
