From Monday of the coming week, Danish voters will be able to vote by mail for the upcoming EU election, which will take place on June 9th. This is an attempt to increase flexibility and accessibility in voting participation. In Aarhus Municipality, the process of mail voting has already begun, as the first vote has been received from a sailor who will not be in the country on election day. Mail votes can be cast at various public places such as citizen service centers and libraries, and in Aarhus, it is specifically the Culture House Dokk1 that will provide this service from the start. Lene Hartig Danielsen, the head of Citizen Service in Aarhus and responsible for the election process, explains that mail voting will later be available at selected local libraries. Although a large turnout is not expected from day one, there is an expectation that some voters will take advantage of the opportunity to be among the first. Mail voting has become an increasingly popular method of casting a vote. In the latest parliamentary election in 2022, mail votes accounted for nearly ten percent of the total votes, which is the highest ever recorded.
Kasper Møller Hansen, a political scientist and professor at the University of Copenhagen, points out that an increase in mail votes does not necessarily lead to higher voter turnout, as it is often voters who would have voted regardless. For seafarers and others who know they cannot be present on election day, it is possible to mail vote up to three months before the election. This flexibility allows everyone to have their voice heard, regardless of personal circumstances. It is also possible to change a mail vote until June 6th, but once a mail vote has been cast, one cannot vote again on election day. This new initiative hopes to encourage more people to exercise their democratic right and participate in the EU election, no matter where they are in the world on election day.