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Hamburg 2024


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The referendum is today

NDR - live blog about the referendum (in german)

The polling station will be closed at 6 p.m. (CET) today - the first results shall be announced around 6.30 p.m..

NDR = Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German Broadcasting Corp.)

Reminds me of the BR liveblog almost exactly two years ago. Wishing you a better outcome :-)

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It seems that at least in Hamburg, there's a high turnout so far. Kiel as sailing venue has its own referendum where the turnout is much lower until now.

According to the last few opinion polls, around 55 per cent of Hamburg citizens appear to support the Olympic bid. That said, the comparably low turnout (only 48% until 17:00, presumably due to the unremittant rain today - this figure includes postal ballots). Essentially, this will come down to which side had the better groundgame in terms of mobilizing its supporters to get out and vote. I think we're in for a long night and a narrow outcome. The margin of victory (should it actually be a "Yes" - and given that NIMBYs are particularly strong in Germany, I'm reserving judgment for now) will determine whether Hamburg's bid will be seen as possessing convincing support.

One last thing: As a German, I can only shake my head about non-voters throwing away the opportunity to cast their ballot in the referendum. Hamburg citizens were given an opportunity that most Olympic applicant cities never get - quite frankly, in light of all the recent discussions about the IOC handing the Olympics to efficient dictatorships like China and Russia, this sort of low turnout lays waste to any moralizing that some among us Germans love to lord over the rest of the world.

A wasted opportunity, regardless of the outcome - and an utter disgrace, considering that there are millions who literally fight and die for the right to cast a secret ballot.

PS: For those interested in the actual results, the Hamburg city government's department of the interior will keep a tally here.

*"the comparably low turnout is a cause for concern" (line 2)

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Thanks for the link to follow the results! It seems "Nein" is leading by just 500 votes approximately. It's going to be very close.

Damn! That said, the leading polling institute in Germany has just published an exit poll (sample of around 3,800 respondents): YES leads 56-44 (go to 18:03).

The question reads: "Shall Hamburg apply for the Olympic Games?"

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Uhm, a 50% turnout is better than at the last Hamburg election, and much higher than in Munich two years ago.

It's a close call indeed.

Still disgraceful that half of Hamburg's population couldn't get off its backside to cast a simple ballot - and those will be the first ones moaning and effing about every single aspect of the bid and (should Hamburg actually win) the implemenation of the Games plan.

Failing to vote is pretty much inexcusable, especially considering that Germany did sufer from two dictatorships on its soil.

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Even if the YES pulls it off somehow, it's gonna be a less-than-convincing victory. Clearly, the YES camp's get-out-the-vote operation was way off...

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The city's mayor has pushed back his press conference (originally planned for 19:30 CET) to sometime after 20:00. Guess the city government didn't expect this kind of result at all.

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If Hamburg voted Yes and Kiel voted No, would that have really made a difference in the bid?

Yes, then Hamburg would have picked another sailing venue. In the Munich 2022 referendum, it was always clear that the bid would be off if only one of the four locations voted no. In the end of course all four did.

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If Hamburg voted Yes and Kiel voted No, would that have really made a difference in the bid?

Not sure about that one, but I suspect Hamburg would merely need to shop around for another city willing to do the sailing events. It'd be bit of a "tail wagging the dog" situation if Kiel could prevent Hamburg from bidding despite a YES in Hamburg - at the moment, for various reasons, this appears to be an academic question.

Another aside re: the incoming results: Sadly, the city government isn't tabulating the results district-by-district. It'd be interesting to know whether poorer and wealthy areas of Hamburg differ in terms of turnout and support.

It´s again a fu***** shame Germany!!

Yep, seems like us Germans can't see a good thing when it's right in front of us...utterly laughable!

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