Is e-voting making any progress in Switzerland?

The number of cantons participating in the e-voting trial is crucial for the funding and therefore the success of the project. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / GIAN EHRENZELLER

Graubünden has become the fourth Swiss canton to offer electronic voting. But how many others would have to follow to make the e-voting system financially viable? And how long will current trials last?

On March 3, Swiss citizens will vote on two pension initiatives. It is a special vote for five municipalities in canton Graubünden in the east of the country: they are taking part in an e-voting pilot for the first time.

Swiss citizens living abroad and registered in the municipalities of Domat/Ems, Lumnezia, Pontresina, Poschiavo and Safiental can vote electronically along with all other voters. For the upcoming ballot, Graubünden has applied for the authorisation of around 12,000 voters. Together with cantons Basel City, St Gallen and Thurgau, 77,000 people will be able to vote online on March 3, which is around 1.4% of the total electorate, according to the Federal Chancellery.

Canton Graubünden is planning to add the municipality of Landquart for the next vote on June 9 and, after this year’s pilot phase, to extend the e-voting trial to other municipalities in 2025, a spokesperson for the cantonal chancellery told SWI swissinfo.ch.

Even access to e-voting does not always guarantee that you can vote from abroad:

When will the system be viable?

Other cantons are set to follow. Geneva also wants to test e-voting, said Ariane Rustichelli, director of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) in our Let’s Talk programme on the subject of e-voting. Another German-speaking Swiss canton, possibly Bern, is also in the pipeline. The Federal Chancellery said that no further applications had been received. However, the specialist portal Inside IT recently reported that Bern had already calculated that such a trial would cost CHF1.9 million ($2.15 million).

The number of cantons participating in the e-voting trial is crucial for the funding and therefore the success of the project.

“It’s worthwhile for Swiss Post [who have developed the technology behind the e-voting system] if there are ten or more cantons,” said Inside IT editor-in-chief Reto Vogt on Let’s Talk. What’s more, several populous cantons have to be involved.

However, Swiss Post doesn’t want to be tied down to this specific figure. “Of course, Swiss Post’s income from e-voting depends on how many cantons use the system,” says a spokesperson. The number of authorised voters and ballots with e-voting per year also play a role. However, Swiss Post does not disclose how many there should be for it to be profitable.

Canton Zurich still waiting

Observers assume that the participation of canton Zurich, the country’s most populous, will be decisive. However, everything still seems up in the air. A cantonal parliament resolution from 2022 stated that a possible nationwide use of e-voting in canton Zurich required an adaption of the federal and cantonal legal framework and that the canton saw no need for additional trials after three pilot phases.

“At the moment, there’s no political mandate for the reintroduction of e-voting in canton Zurich,” says Stephan Ziegler, head of the canton’s elections and voting.

It also remains uncertain what goals the government and Swiss Post have set themselves – and by what deadline – in order to be able to speak of a successful trial operation. This would be a prerequisite for the next step towards definitively establishing e-voting in Switzerland. The government has said only that it wants to gather experience – a goal that is difficult to measure.

“A longer phase of trials is required,” says a Federal Chancellery spokesperson. Scientific analyses will then be carried out to learn what impact the pilot scheme had on participation, trust and acceptance.

A nationwide introduction of e-voting would go through the ordinary legislative process, the spokesperson continues. This requires the approval of parliament and – in the event of a referendum – the people. It’s currently not possible to say when this might happen.

While the cantons have a good deal of room for manoeuvre, the e-voting test at the national level is bound by narrower limits: 30% of the cantonal and 10% of the Swiss electorate may use e-voting. Keystone

Alongside data protection, financing is the biggest hurdle for e-voting. The costs for each canton comprise a basic fee for the use and operation of the system. Then there are the variable costs, says the Swiss Post spokesperson. These are calculated based on the number of all voters in a canton and the proportion of those who can use e-voting. Swiss Post does not communicate exact figures here either.

However, IT specialist Reto Vogt reckons that flying every Swiss Abroad to Switzerland to cast their vote in person would be cheaper than the e-voting system that is currently in use.

Cantons determine who can participate

Once the cantons have received authorisation for e-voting from the federal government, they can determine which voters are allowed to participate. In Basel City, for example, Swiss citizens living abroad and people with disabilities have access, in canton Thurgau only Swiss citizens living abroad, while in cantons St Gallen and Graubünden all voters in the authorised pilot municipalities can take part.

Read here how e-voting works:

“It was important to us that all language regions of the canton were taken into account,” says the spokesperson for the chancellery in Graubünden, Switzerland’s only officially trilingual canton (German, Italian and Romansh).

Municipalities with different structures and sizes were deliberately selected. So far, more than 900 people from the five municipalities have registered for the vote on June 3. Of the Swiss Abroad, 30% – 52 people – want to cast their vote electronically, while the proportion of domestic voters is 9.4%. No feedback has been received regarding security concerns.

While the cantons have a lot of room for manoeuvre, the e-voting test operation for the government is taking place within narrower limits: 30% of the cantonal electorate and 10% of the electorate throughout Switzerland are allowed to use e-voting. However, Swiss citizens living abroad and people with disabilities are considered a special target group and are not included in this limit.

According to the legal provisions, an e-voting system that is set up only for Swiss citizens abroad would also be possible. In the event of a referendum such a restriction would possibly have better chances politically as it would limit risks. At the same time, it would probably fail in practice due to the high costs.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Translated from German by Thomas Stephens