Long queues and waiting times in front of the polling stations, incorrect or missing ballot papers, temporary closures of polling stations and in some places voting until well after 6 p.m. – the election Sunday on September 26, 2021 was a chaotic event in the capital Berlin and anything but a celebration of democracy. The fact that the Bundestag, the state parliament and the local councils were re-elected at the same time and that a referendum was also being voted on, overwhelmed the administration. Federal Returning Officer Georg Thiel later saw a “complete systematic failure of the election organization”.