Die Welt deputy Andreas Maurer is being charged with voter fraud.
According to the indictment, the men are said to have gone from house to house in August 2016 for the election campaign in Quakenbrück in areas with high concentration of immigrants who don’t speak German. They are accused of persuading people participating in “absentee voting”, falsely filling out forms for them and falsifying document signatures on the ballots.
“The result of the absentee ballot was really striking,” said Claus Peter Poppe of SPD party.
The fraud was revealed after a number of people complained about being unable to vote at the polling station, as the system said they already filed an absentee ballot. The ballots were recounted bringing the Die Linke votes form 22% to 16%.