In volkach town hall, 1. Upstairs, room 16, christian schwab straightens his rolled-up arms one last time. It’s the final spurt in the state and district elections, and the election clerk of the VG volkach is taking care of the "operational business", because he is the one who has all the threads running together. And that in addition to his other work in department 11, public order and safety.
Sunday the last, monday the first
On election sunday, after 16 hours on duty, he is the last to turn off the lights in the town hall and the first to turn them on again on monday. But election sunday is only the penultimate step in a long process that began in december with the notification of the need for ballot papers. "This is how the printers prepare themselves," says schwab, looking at the checklist, which seems to be as thick as a catalog.
Half a year before the election, he starts the search for 150 election helpers and the polling stations in volkach, nordheim and sommerach. All election workers are trained and the VG colleagues are provided with work, also because of the high proportion of letter payers. "There are currently an exorbitant 2200, around one-third," says schwab. Day-to-day business in department 11 is therefore somewhat slower, but it is still going on: organization of major events, fireworks notices, VHS, music school and city library concerns, road closures, fire department requirements plan, field jury – to name just a few. And: schwab is also responsible for the referendums, most recently the decision on the construction of the hotel on the main.
In the heiben phase
"After the wine festival and a week’s vacation came the hectic phase of the state and district elections," he says. The forms for the ballots had to be procured, the polling stations had to be equipped with utensils, the electoral directory had to be updated. Sunday, 23. September: the last election notification must have arrived at the polling station. Now come the many "little things": packing boxes for the polling stations, providing all the documents, paying the refreshment money of 40 euros per election worker, sending out the last payment slips, and so on.
On election sunday, schwab, who is also the VG’s IT specialist, sets up the meeting room from 8 a.M. As an information center for the citizens. They see the same as the visitors of the internet pages. At 6 p.M., the last postal documents are taken out of the mailbox – then it’s pay, pay, pay time. All local election officials report the quick results by telephone, which schwab immediately enters on the internet. Even with problems of all kinds, his phone rings or his computer reports the receipt of an e-mail.
The rough cleaning up
On monday schwab announced the state election, on tuesday the district election. "After that, the rough cleaning up begins," says schwab. Even if the brieahl is now uncomplicated, the one or other impossibility still arises. In the 2017 federal election, a woman had her documents sent to madagascar because of her internship abroad. The "brieahlschein number 1" was four weeks on the way, and everyone was trembling as to whether he would make it on time. On election sunday at 10 a.M.30 o’clock the letter carrier in volkach on the mat: special delivery from madagascar. "Currently, a letter from peru is still on its way to us", says schwab, "we all hope that it will also arrive in time"."
The next elections
As always, "after the election is before the election": european elections in may 2019, municipal elections in spring 2020, federal elections in 2021.