The government must distribute four million ballots: **"It could become a catastrophe."**

Since the New Year, when Dao took over PostNord’s mail distribution, deliveries have been marked by delays. In January alone, Dao received over 15,000 complaints about letters that had not arrived on time.

At the same time, extraordinary pressure may soon be placed on the distribution company. 2026 is an election year, and a parliamentary election could in principle be called with short notice, requiring millions of ballot papers to be sent quickly to voters.

- It could become a catastrophe, says Kenneth Fredslund Petersen, transport spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party.

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**"Clearly not in control of the operation"**

Mads Olsen, transport spokesperson for the Social Democrats, recently made the following statement:

- My concern is that Dao has just taken over the postal service, and it is clearly not in control. And when you then get such a massive additional task, like distributing millions of ballot papers—which is essentially what it is—then I can certainly be worried that they won’t be able to deliver them, says Mads Olsen.

Mads Olsen (SF) doubts whether Dao will be able to distribute millions of ballot papers in the event of a similar upcoming parliamentary election. (Photo: © Emil Nicolai Helms, Ritzau Scanpix)

The Danish People’s Party’s transport spokesperson shares this concern.

- Ballot papers must be delivered to all eligible voters in Denmark. As things stand now, delays could certainly occur—or will they ever arrive? They just need to get their act together, says Kenneth Fredslund Petersen of the Danish People’s Party.

At Dao, however, they feel well-prepared for the task. This is what managing director Hans Peter Nissen says.

- Dao must distribute the ballot papers, and we have been training for this since November, when we were able to plan the distribution in detail based on data from the municipal elections, he states.

The Social Democrats’ transport spokesperson also points out that ballot papers could exacerbate problems with regular mail.

- I can also be concerned that all other mail will be pushed to the back of the queue, meaning Mr. and Mrs. Jensen will have to wait up to a month before they can send their letters, he says.

And that is indeed a risk, explains Hans Peter Nissen from Dao.

- Consequences for the rest of the distribution will be delays in delivery in cases where it takes longer to distribute than we anticipate, he says.

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**Should the minister apply the emergency brake?**

According to the postal law, which is supported by the government, Liberal Alliance, Conservatives, Radical Liberals, Alternativet, and New Right, the transport minister has the option to appoint a provider if the free market cannot handle the task—even if the bill ends up being paid by the state.

This is an option that Kenneth Fredslund Petersen believes the minister should be ready to use if Dao does not soon get its deliveries under control.

- There’s nothing else to do, and therefore I also hope that Dao will come forward with some statements on top of all this. How do they plan to solve it? says Kenneth Fredslund Petersen (DD).

Kenneth Fredslund Petersen (DD) gives Dao until the end of February to get its delivery times in order. Otherwise, the minister will have to intervene, he says. (Photo: © Thomas Traasdahl, Ritzau Scanpix)

Dao announced at the end of January that it would take "a little over a month" to achieve stable mail distribution. According to Kenneth Fredslund Petersen (DD), this should also be the deadline the minister holds the company to.

- He should do that by the end of February, when they said they would have it under control, says he.

Mads Olsen (SF) also does not rule out the possibility that intervention may become necessary.

- I hope the minister can guarantee that everyone receives their ballot paper for the parliamentary election. Otherwise, he will have to step in and appoint PostNord to ensure that happens, says the Social Democrats’ transport spokesperson.

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**Can you vote without a ballot paper?**

Yes, you can vote without a ballot paper. On the website of the Ministry of the Interior, it states that:

*"There’s no need to despair if you’ve lost your ballot paper or if it hasn’t arrived by post. You can still vote if you bring identification such as a passport, driver’s license, or health card.*

*Contact your municipality or check your municipality’s website if you haven’t received your ballot paper. They can inform you where to vote."*

Source: www.valg.im.dk

According to Hans Peter Nissen from Dao, the many delays are due to manual sorting issues. This will not be a problem with ballot papers.

- The delays we’ve seen in January are solely due to problems in manual sorting, and since ballot papers go directly into distribution, we should avoid such errors, he says.

However, he still cannot guarantee everything will go according to plan.

- 4.1 million letters are a lot, and even though we do our utmost, we’ll likely not avoid some mistakes somewhere along the way—but we’re also closely monitoring this, says Dao’s managing director.

If you don’t have a ballot paper on election day, you can still vote. In that case, you must bring identification such as a passport, driver’s license, or health card.

DR has attempted to arrange an interview with transport minister Thomas Danielsen (V). He has not responded.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.