Overview
- City election officials discovered the error in late August when 440 Briefwahl certificates were printed and posted twice with identical Wahlscheinnummern and then declared those numbers invalid.
- Magdeburg is sending replacement mail‑in materials with new unique numbers and told affected voters they may discard the now‑invalid duplicate packets.
- The invalidated numbers have been listed for Wahlvorstände to check on election day so any envelopes bearing those numbers will not be counted.
- The incident has been seized on by AfD politicians who have questioned postal voting security while state election officials and experts publicly defended the safety and decentralised checks of Briefwahl.
- Fact‑checkers have refuted fake social posts and posters tied to the episode and authorities have ramped up police planning and pro‑democracy events as the September 6 vote approaches.