The Federal Council has authorised the cantons of Basel City, St Gallen and Thurgau to trial electronic voting in the October elections for a limited number of voters.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/jdp
Português
pt
Governo aprova votação eletrônica nas eleições legislativas de 2023
Swiss voters abroad who are registered in any of the three cantons will be able to use the online voting method to elect members to the House of Representatives, a press releaseExternal link on Wednesday said.
Canton Basel City will also allow Swiss citizens with a disability to vote online, and in canton St Gallen a limited number of voters from municipalities that offer e-voting can also register. In all, the cantons are asking for around 65,000 voters to be authorised for e-voting in the national elections – around 1.2% of the Swiss electorate.
The decision “allows three cantons to gain further experience using Swiss Post’s e-voting system,” writes the government. The Federal Chancellery has commissioned independent experts to review the e-voting system on a regular basis.
The decision comes after the same three cantons were allowed to use the Swiss postal service’s new e-voting system for the June 18 national votes. The cantons and Federal Chancellery viewed the first use of the new system in a popular vote as a success.
Ongoing debate
The last time e-voting was used in federal elections was in 2015, when it was authorised for 132,134 voters in the cantons of Geneva, Lucerne, Basel City and Neuchâtel.
A pilot project to allow e-voting in some cantons was abandoned in 2019 amid technical and security concerns, much to the dismay of the Swiss diaspora around the world who argue that the lack of e-voting reduces voter turnout and is a threat to democracy.
Popular Stories
More
Identities
Switzerland’s most renowned trans person no longer wants to be a woman
Report finds serious security flaws in Swiss hospital information systems
This content was published on
The IT systems of several Swiss hospitals suffer from serious security flaws, according to the National Testing Institute for Cybersecurity (NTC).
Cost of leisure activities rises dramatically in Switzerland
This content was published on
The Swiss paid more for leisure activities in December. Prices for vacation apartments, package tours and cable cars rose significantly.
New Swiss epidemic surveillance centre inaugurated
This content was published on
The Centre for Pathogen Bioinformatics was inaugurated in Bern on Thursday. It aims to improve epidemics monitoring in Switzerland using genomic data.
This content was published on
Switzerland, as a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), signed a free trade agreement with Thailand during WEF.
This content was published on
The federal audit office has criticised the Swiss government for poor planning of the procurement of six drones from an Israeli supplier.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Why can’t voting papers be sent to the Swiss Abroad earlier?
This content was published on
A quarter of Swiss citizens who live abroad struggle to return their voting papers in time. Unfortunately the obvious solutions are also illegal.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.