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Germany is in the middle of the election year, and the use of mailed ballots will be unprecedented. Expect hacking attacks against politicians. The election authorities rejected allegations of potential voter fraud.

German authorities refute all claims that the election may be compromised by fraud or cyberattacks

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (Horst Seehofer) tried to stop far-right accusations of voter fraud before the German election in September, while emphasizing the threat of cyberattacks from inside and outside Germany.

At a press conference hosted by the heads of German election authorities, domestic intelligence agencies, BfV and cybersecurity agency BSI on Wednesday, Seehofer explained the security threats facing the German election and how the authorities plan to combat them. 

"Our authorities will do everything possible to ensure that the Bundestag elections are conducted in an orderly and safe manner," Seehofer told reporters.

But Georg Thiel, the federal electoral officer responsible for overseeing the German elections, is responsible for filling in the details, especially rejecting the allegations of potential mailing voter fraud made by members of Congress for the far-right AfD party. 

Federal election officer Georg Thiel dismissed allegations of potential mailing voter fraud

Much like the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increase in the number of mailed votes in 2021. This is a "super election year" when Germany will hold six state elections and one national election. 

This led AfD Bundestag member Stephan Brandner and others to publicly speculate on the possibility of manipulation without providing evidence. Brandner said that because ballot boxes were mailed in city halls across the country for "weeks", "no one knows what will happen to them."

Teal quickly denied any claims that mailed ballots are more fraudulent than ballot box ballots. "Since 1957, we have had mail-in votes," he said at a news conference on Wednesday. "And in all these years, there is no evidence that the most remote way may have led to widespread manipulation of the election in a safe and effective manner. The ballot box for mailed ballots is handled exactly the same as the ballot box for on-site voting."

There are no voting machines in Germany-votes are manually counted

In Germany, mailed ballots are checked against the voter register when they arrive and kept in a locked ballot box in a safe location until election day to prevent tampering. The ballot boxes for voting in person are also locked and monitored by at least three members of the Election Committee to ensure that unauthorized ballots are not added. When the voting ends at 6 pm on election day, all members of the election committee and observers are present and the boxes are opened and counted.

Thiel is also keen to emphasize the fact that Germany does not use voting machines like the United States. "We don't know about the voting machine from the United States. The actual voting procedure at the polling station is old school," Thiel said. "When I recently explained to a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior that it can work with paper and pencil, he said,'This reassures me.'" 

"We don't have voting machines-after all, votes are counted," he said. Thiel also continued to emphasize that any citizen has the right to walk in and watch the counting process.

The voting systems of the two countries have received similar accusations, but their structures are different.

"The biggest difference is that there is a stable voter register based on a resident register," Thiel told DW. In cases where Americans must actively register to vote, Germany's system of recording citizens' residence ensures that they are automatically registered. This discrepancy means that the voter list is updated regularly, including when people die or move, which makes it more difficult to add people by mistake.

Any citizen has the right to walk in and watch the count

According to the authorities, a greater threat to the integrity of German democracy is likely to come from the Internet—especially foreign actors trying to invade the parliamentary system, as happened in 2015. As was widely reported in March this year, some German federal and state legislators received so-called phishing emails in their private accounts, apparently hoping to obtain sensitive data.

According to Thomas Haldenwang, the head of the German domestic intelligence agency BfV, since then, an organization called "Ghostwriter" has carried out more than 100 attacks on members of the Bundestag. Although Haldenwang was reluctant to say this at a news conference on Wednesday, German media reported extensively that Russian intelligence agencies are believed to be behind the attack. 

"Only in rare cases are these attacks successful," Haldenwang said. "Most of the attacked people have sufficient awareness and did not open the email. In a few successful cases, we quickly contacted the affected people and warned them so that they can reset and clean their systems." Haldenwang Said that BfV has been aware of various waves of attacks.

At the same time, the opposition parties accused the German government of only now realizing the problem of such cyber attacks. Green Party security policy spokesperson Konstantin von Notz (Konstantin von Notz) said in a statement on Wednesday: “The Federal Minister of the Interior now recognizes the fact that the threat comes too late, but this is a step in the right direction. A step forward." "Whether the government will see illegal attempts to exert influence in time, let alone whether they can stop them with the necessary determination, it seems doubtful."

However, Sihofer was still relatively optimistic on Wednesday, indicating that the threat from foreign agents is no greater than the threat from domestic — and it is often difficult for them to distinguish between the two. "Look at what's happening in Moscow, what's happening in China, Iran or other countries-I emphasize again, we attach great importance to these, but we should not underestimate what is happening at home," he said. "We live in a globalized world and it is often difficult to distinguish them."

Ian Bateson contributed to this report.

When you are here: Every Tuesday, the editors of Deutsche Welle will collate what is happening in German politics and society, focusing on the elections this year and beyond. You can sign up for the weekly email newsletter Berlin newsletter here to learn about the latest developments in Germany's post-Merkel era.

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