Nyhuis Dominic
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
Polit Vierteljahresschr. 2021;62(4):597-619. doi: 10.1007/s11615-021-00358-3. Epub 2021 Nov 5.
Voting by mail is increasingly popular. Although voters enjoy the convenience of voting by mail, the public is unaware how prone to error mail ballots are. Election administrations reject mail ballots for a variety of reasons. Because German electoral laws treat rejected ballots as not having been cast, the reported number of invalid mail ballots underestimates the true share of uncounted mail ballots. Between 3.2% and 4.0% of the mailed ballots in German elections are estimated to remain uncounted, which is far higher than the share of invalid in-person votes. This paper argues that rejected mail ballots should be reported in the official records to make voters aware of the risks of an uncounted mail ballot.
邮寄投票越来越受欢迎。尽管选民享受邮寄投票的便利，但公众并不了解邮寄选票有多容易出错。选举管理机构因各种原因拒收邮寄选票。由于德国选举法将被拒收的选票视为未投出，所报告的无效邮寄选票数量低估了未计票邮寄选票的真实比例。据估计，在德国选举中，3.2%至4.0%的邮寄选票未被计票，这一比例远高于无效现场投票的比例。本文认为，应在官方记录中报告被拒收的邮寄选票，以使选民了解未计票邮寄选票的风险。
