On 26 September 2021, Berlin elected its state parliament and its district assemblies. Many polling stations did not have enough ballot papers, and some received the wrong ones. Voters waited in line, often for hours. Voting time ends at 6 p.m., and after that only voters who are already present may vote. Across the city, people were still voting after 6 p.m., when the first forecasts based on exit polls had already been published. On 16 November 2022, the Constitutional Court of Berlin declared both elections invalid in the entire city. The court named voting after 6 p.m. as one example of the defects that violated voters’ constitutional rights. The election was repeated on 12 February 2023.
Polling stations across the city were still open long after the closing time, while forecasts were already public, and the court counted that among the breaches of the voters’ rights.