Coronavirus: What voters need to know

Lisa Vogel studied departmental journalism with a focus on medicine and biosciences at Ansbach University and deepened her journalistic knowledge in the master's degree in multimedia information and communication. This was followed by a traineeship in the editorial team. Since September 2020 she has been writing as a freelance journalist for

More posts by Lisa Vogel All content is checked by medical journalists.

The outbreak and the spread of the corona virus are affecting daily life - and also the upcoming local elections in Bavaria. What voters should know now.

(lv / dpa) - The corona epidemic affects the Bavarian local elections on Sunday. The virus has very direct consequences for election campaigners, election workers and voters. A selection:

POSTAL VOTING: In many places, the percentage of postal voters is already higher than in the last elections. And it should still rise. Many municipalities and politicians call for the option of postal voting to be used to protect against possible infection.

Suddenly ill can, if necessary, even submit applications to the municipalities until 3 p.m. on election day, as the Interior Ministry explained. Anyone who sends someone else to collect the documents must also issue a power of attorney. There are also special mailboxes in Munich. Everyone can get detailed information from the local authority responsible for them.

VOTING: Anyone who does vote does not need to be afraid. Infection with Sars-CoV-2 as well as with colds or flu in the voting booth is unlikely, said the spokesman for the German Society for Hospital Hygiene, Peter Walger. "Usually there are no queues in front of the German voting booths." Because the elderly are considered a risk group and the risk of infection should be reduced, the city of Füssen, for example, has moved a polling station from an old people's home to a secondary school.

The Ministry of the Interior pointed out that hygiene recommendations to protect against infectious diseases protect in general - not just against infection with the corona virus. Voters can even bring their own pens to vote. Many municipalities have also announced that there are enough options for hand hygiene in polling stations.

ELECTION HELPERS: From the point of view of the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), disinfecting entire polling stations does not make sense, as the KVR explained. In many situations of daily life, voters and election workers are in contact with objects that others have touched. According to the authorities, wearing disposable gloves also gives a false feeling of security because the hands are often not cleaned regularly.

COUNTING: In Munich, where 14,000 voluntary election workers are supposed to be on duty, the evaluation of the postal voting documents was specially distributed in six instead of four halls. "This ensures that there are significantly fewer than 1000 people working in each of the six exhibition halls," explained a KVR spokesman with a view to the increasing number of people represented. In addition, the counting tables would be set up at a great distance.

ELECTION PARTIES: Many parties have canceled their election parties scheduled for Sunday evening - although often far fewer than 1000 people are expected. In doing so, they reacted to the state government's instructions to rethink events with fewer than 1,000 participants.

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