SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 9.5.2026
Donald Trump’s six years long insane ranting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen from him unsupported by a shred of reality has now reached Germany.
In Sunday’s German election the ultra right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to win to close to a majority in at least one of three State elections.
The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, which has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization”, could become Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.
It’s no secret that Trump is infatuated with the AfD. In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD which ended up winning 152 seats in the German Bundestag.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has called for postal voting to be restricted to justified exceptional cases.
During the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that expanded mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Fact-checkers documented and debunked repeated false and exaggerated claims about the security of mail ballots.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration is again seeking to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots, measures that have faced repeated legal challenges.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.5.2026
As Germany heads into three elections in September, rumors are circulating on social media claiming that postal voting is not secure — claims that have also been made about other elections. Here’s why they’re wrong.
Stakes are high in Germany’s three September state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, where voters go to the ballot boxes on Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could make history in by winning an outright majority.
Mail-in voting, or “Briefwahl,” has become an increasingly common feature of German elections. But the rise in mail-in ballots has been followed by a renewed wave of speculation and claims questioning the security and integrity of postal vote.
DW Fact check examined a sample of claims circulating online and assessed what the available evidence shows.
Does postal voting manipulate election results?
Claim: Cases of fraud involving postal ballots prove that postal voting is unreliable.
DW Fact check: Misleading. Individual cases of fraud, errors or violations do not demonstrate that the entire postal voting system is unreliable or that it has affected the outcome of an election.
Postal voting easy to manipulate?
Claim: Postal votes are easily manipulated during counting.
DW Fact check: False. Germany has detailed procedures governing the handling and counting of postal ballots. Postal votes are transported, stored and opened according to established rules, and their counting takes place publicly.
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-germanys-postal-voting-system-isnt-rigged/a-78958438
Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election
September 5, 2026 at 7:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments
“Leaders of an extremist, far-right party in Germany have quietly borrowed pages from President Trump’s playbook to cast doubt on the integrity of absentee voting — alleging without evidence that residents of nursing homes have had their ballots manipulated and calling for an end to postal voting,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The attack on mail ballots comes as Germany approaches a potentially historic state election that could shatter one of the taboos of its postwar political order by opening the door to a far-right government.”
“Politicians across the ideological spectrum, mindful that polls show Trump to be widely unpopular, don’t invoke his name. But the specter of the American president nevertheless hangs over the election that could have reverberations across Europe if the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party — tacitly echoing Trump’s attacks on migrants, the media and the integrity of elections — pulls off an unprecedented political shock in postwar Germany.”
Lee's Perspective 