Jazz studio, prison, living room among the weirder polling stations this year

Netherlands residents who don’t feel like casting their vote at the traditional polling stations at city halls, libraries, and train stations today have quite a variety of weirder voting locations to choose from in the parliamentary election. You can vote at a jazz studio in Amsterdam, several museums and football stadiums, a woman’s prison in Ter Peel, or Wim Westhoff’s living room in Marle, among other places.

Amsterdam and Weesp voters looking for a different voting experience this election can cast their ballot at the Red Light Jazz Studio on Zeedijk, the newly renovated De Nederlandsche Bank, the Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam’s oldest sawmill, or the Wispe brewery in Weesp, among other places.

A handful of football stadiums are also opening their doors as polling stations today, including De Adelaarshorst Stadium of Go Ahead Eagles and ADO Den Haag’s WerkTalent Stadium.

Five World War II memorial centers and museums will open their doors to democracy to “recall in their own way the loss of freedom and oppression” during the war. These include the Anne Frank House, Westerbork Camp Memorial, and the national monuments at Camp Vught, Camp Westerbork, and the Oranje Hotel. After voting, voters can visit the museums and monuments free of charge, ANP reported.

The Bajescafé at the women’s prison in Ter Peel is also a polling station today. Inmates and residents of the municipality of Maas and de Horst can vote there between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

And the around 70 residents of Marle in Overijssel can cast their vote in Wim Westhoff’s living room again this year. Westhoff’s home, which his parents owned before him, has been a polling station since 1948.

Westhoff told ANP that he doesn’t mind opening his home to voters, but he is getting a bit annoyed by the recent frequency of elections. This is the second parliamentary election in just under two years. There were also provincial council elections in 2023, European Council elections last year, and municipal elections are happening next year. “It’s fine. But I don’t need this two or three times a year,” Westhoff told the news wire.