The drama and routine of Danish elections

Tuesday was election day in Denmark. Across the country, 2,432 municipal council seats and 134 regional counsel seats (representing 98 municipalities and four regions) were decided — with thousands of candidates standing for office.

Seriously, the ballot for our municipality (kommune in Danish) was massive. Very different from ballots in Canada or the UK.

I’m not yet able to vote in Denmark’s local/regional elections (if you’re curious who’s elligible, I made a flow chart for Last Week in Denmark), but Tony can because of his EU citizenship. And vote he did, describing the process as “Almost disappointingly easy.”

Our polling location was the kommune city hall. The huge foyer was fully devoted to voting, with half a dozen voting booths (pull the curtain to walk in the front, pull another curtain to exit out the back and deposit your ballot) and many, many election workers and volunteers. No one was handing out the ‘I voted’ stickers commonplace in Canada, but we did get candy bearing the kommune’s branding.

Getting the ballot was as simple as Tony handing in his voting card, which had arrived in the post a few days prior (probably one of the last official documents to actually be delivered by mail in Denmark — things are super digital here). Unlike Canada or the UK, Danish voting ‘cards’ aren’t cardstock at all — they’re just normal A4 paper.

And, actually, there were two ballots; one for local representatives (city councillors and the local mayor) and another for regional delegates (similar to provincial MLAs in Canada or region/county seats in the UK). Local councils are responsible for most of the day-to-day: schools, child- and elder-care, local roads and bike paths, libraries, community sports/leisure activities, buses, that kinda stuff. Healthcare is the primary responsibility of the regional councils (think hospitals, GPs, specialists), which also have some stewardship over public transport, environmental planning, soil pollution management, and bits of secondary education.

Unlike voter cards, the ballots are heavier weight stock — and way bigger than A4! With over 400 names on the regional ballot for Østdanmark, it’s no wonder voters also have the option of picking a party, rather than an individual candidate. Much simpler to make one mark next to a party instead of sliding on reading glasses or picking up a magnifying glass to find a specific name. The party then decides internally who will fill the seats they’ve won.

While nothing much changed in our riding (unsurprising that a well-off municipality stuck with a Conservative party), this election saw seismic shifts in Copenhagen proper. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s party lost the Lord Mayorship of Copenhagen for the first time since the post was introduced in 1938 — news so mind boggling it got its own Guardian headline.

It’s possible that greater voter participation from internationals (meaning people not born in Denmark) shifted results a little further to the left. Some parties actively targeted internationals with posters in multiple languages and many internationals (me included) encouraged voter participation among non-Danish citizens. Copenhagen’s residents are between 25-30% non-Danish and, for many in the capital region, English is the lingua franca. At least one right-leaning party wants to take away voting rights for non-citizens, making this election even more meaningful for internationals. (Only Danish citizens can vote in parliamentary elections, but the voter net is much wider for local/regional ones.)

A parliamentary election is coming in 2026 (the sitting government came to power in November 2022 and elections must be held every four years) and I suspect internationals will be a hot topic. Neither Tony or I will be able to vote federally, but I’ll almost certainly be following closely and keenly awaiting the results. (And keeping my fingers and toes crossed that voters don’t swing super hard to the right.)

Hopefully, I’ll contribute to Last Week in Denmark‘s parliamentary election coverage like I did with this round of voting. In addition to diagraming who’s eligible to vote, I also interviewed one of the candidates as part of Last Week in Denmark’s coverage of non-Danish-born contenders. Natalia wasn’t elected to local council, but I know she’s proud to be part of the democratic process. As am I in my own small way.

Meet the Internationals standing for election: Natalia Cernavin