Size matters in Cologne

The people of Cologne, which is Germany's fourth-largest city and famous for its Gothic cathedral and lively Carnival celebrations, will have to wait a few weeks longer than expected before they can vote for a new mayor.

After days of chaos and soul-searching in the Cologne city council, district president Gisela Walsken on Friday announced the city's mayoral election will be held on October, 18 instead of September 13.

What happened? Just recently, state authorities complained to the city that party names printed on the ballots were in a much larger font than the names of the candidates. That's a disadvantage for independent candidates with no party affiliation printed next to their name, they argued. For instance, for Henriette Reker, the independent contender backed by a coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP). Incidentally, Reker is a top contender for the post.

Unfortunately, 53,000 Cologne voters had already cast their absentee ballot s by mail at that point Time was too short to send out new ballots ahead of the scheduled September election, so the entire vote had to be postponed.

Size matters

Who is to blame? Fingers have been pointed at Agnes Klein, who is in charge of the election and allowed the absentee ballots to be sent out. Klein is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), whose candidate Jochen Ott may well have benefited from the distinctly large printing of the party name SPD, while his independent rival's name was printed in tiny letters only. They can hardly be read, even with glasses, Reker said.

Ott quickly distanced himself from the farce. He said he campaigns all day long, and how hard can it be to organize an election by the rules. "I was given an advantage on the voting slip that I absolutely don't want," he said.

Electoral mismanagement seems to be so well-established in the city that it has come to be known as Germany's 'chaos city,' Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung notes.

In municipal elections just last year, votes were miscounted in the southern Cologne district of Rodenkirchen. A recount had to be enforced in court that put the CDU back in power in the district council.

Reportedly, postponing the mayoral vote will cost the city 1 million euros: more than 800,000 ballots have to be reprinted.