Halfway through today’s EU election, it appears that voter turnout will be lower than five years ago. According to a survey conducted by Ritzau among ten municipalities representing around 410,000 voters, the voter turnout was at 33.3 percent at 2:00 PM. This is 4.5 percentage points lower than at the same time during the EU election in 2019, where 66.1 percent of voters cast their ballots, setting a record for participation in an EU election in Denmark. A similar survey during the EU parliamentary elections in 2014 showed a voter turnout of 31.9 percent, with the final turnout that year ending at 56.3 percent.
Political scientist Kasper Møller Hansen from the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, however, believes that it is not meaningful to compare today’s election with those from 2019 or 2014. He points out that previous elections have been influenced by concurrent referendums or parliamentary elections, which have increased participation. Møller Hansen instead suggests comparing it with the EU election in 2004, where the voter turnout was 47.9 percent. Based on this, he assesses that a lower turnout in this year’s election would not be unusual. The polling stations officially close at 8:00 PM, but everyone waiting in line at that time will be allowed to cast their vote.