After its historic victory in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has dropped from 44.4 % of the vote to 43.8% after mail-in ballots were counted, with all other parties gaining abnormally from mail-in ballots. Attorney Dirk Schmitz called this a sign of “systematic manipulation”.
German elections have been thought to be fairly secure, with mainly in-person same-day voting, photo ID requirements, and a Supreme Court ban on digital voting machines, as I explained to Ben Harnwell on The War Room.
German Supreme Court ruled paper-ballots only because electronic voting is effectively unverifiable @CollinFrMcMahon @ben_harnwell pic.twitter.com/BHbVQdvt55
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) September 2, 2026
However, Saxony-Anhalt saw a boom in mail-in ballots, making up one-quarter of all votes cast.
Originally, the AfD had taken 51% of in-person votes on Sunday. As mail-in ballots were counted beginning at 6 pm local time, all other parties gained, and only the AfD lost. Plagiarism expert Stefan Weber, who has identified numerous cheating academics, causing the Christian Democrat governor of the neighboring state of Thuringia Mario Voigt to lose his Ph.D., called these results “a sign of systematic manipulation”, citing an analysis by attorney Dirk Schmitz published by alternative journalist Alexander Wallasch:
“51.20% for the AfD at the ballot box – but only 24.27% of the mail-in vote. A drop of almost 27%. In some places, the gap was even more dramatic: In Mertendorf, the AfD took 63.2 % at the ballot box, but only 24.5% of the mail-in vote – a difference of almost 39%. In the town of Hedersleben, 62.9% of in-person votes went to the AfD, but only 26.4% of the mail-in vote,” Schmitz wrote. “In one district of Magdeburg, the AfD only got 5.5% of the mail-in vote, versus 41.5% at the ballot box (minus 36.0%). In Obhausen, the AfD received 24.8% of mail-in ballots versus 60.5% of in-person votes (minus 35.7%). In the town of Meineweh, the AfD received 27.9% of mail-in ballots versus 63.0% of in-person votes, a difference of 35.1%.”