Electronic voting in Switzerland started in 2003 in the canton of Geneva, where the residents of Anières cast their vote using the Internet. This was the first trial of e-voting in Switzerland. In the following years, the number of people able to use electronic voting grew as more and more cantons began adopting such a system.
The Swiss government has multiple reasons for using electronic voting. It can reduce costs and increase the speed of counting ballots. Swiss living abroad are able to vote more reliably. It could also help raise voter turnout (declining since the 1970s) since voting over the internet is considered by most to be more convenient.
There are multiple electronic voting systems used in the country, notably CHVote (open source software developed by Geneva) and sVote (from Swiss Post, proprietary software developed by Scytl).
In 2019, concerns emerged about the security of e-voting. A committee of politicians and computer experts is launching a people's initiative aimed at banning online voting for at least five years, until the system is proven secure. The controversy grew after researchers from the University of Melbourne discovered Swiss Post's system had a security flaw in its commitment scheme.
History
+ Steps 2000 Launch of the "Electronic Vote" project in three pilot cantons (GE, NE, ZH) 2002 1st report of the Federal Council on electronic voting 2003 Partial revision of the Federal Law on Political Rights and its Execution Order (LDP, ODP) in order to conduct e-voting tests 2004 Geneva: first trials on federal votes 2005 Neuchâtel and Zürich: first trials in federal elections 20062nd report of the Federal Council on Electronic Voting 2008 Geneva, Neuchâtel and Zürich: simultaneous tests
Neuchâtel: Swiss citizens abroad admitted for the first time 2009-2011Accommodation agreement between Geneva and the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Lucerne and Bern for Swiss nationals living abroad 2009Foundation of the "Electronic Vote" Consortium including the cantons of Aargau, Freiburg, Graubünden, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Solothurn and Thurgau 2010Tests in twelve cantons with three systems: the Neuchâtel system, the consortium system (ZH, AG, FR, GR, SH, SG, SO, TG) and the Geneva system (GE, BS, LU) 2011First trials in four cantons (BS, AG, GR, SG) on the occasion of the election of the National Council; the trials are concentrated on the Swiss abroad.
Roadmap and institution of the steering committee 201250% of Swiss abroad can vote online in federal elections 20133rd report of the Federal Council on Electronic Voting 2014Entry into force of the new legal bases (partial revision of the ODP, entry into force of the OVotE) with new security requirements, in particular, the implementation of full verifiability and certification 2015First use of systems claiming individual verifiability
Trials in fourteen cantons
Trials in four cantons at the National Council election (GE, BS, LU, NE)
Dissolution of the "Electronic Vote" consortium 2016First use of the Swiss Post system (with claims of individual verifiability)
Freiburg: resumption of tests, first use of the Swiss Post system 2017Strategic decisions of the Federal Council: start of works for the transition to exploitation and dematerialisation, and measures in the field of transparency
Adoption of the new planning instrument for the introduction of electronic voting by the Confederation and the cantons
Certification of the Swiss Post system for use by 50% of the cantonal electorate
Resumption of trials in the cantons of Aargau and St. Gallen with the canton of Geneva system 2018Final Report of the Electronic Voting Panel
Partial revision of the OVotE (publication of the source code)
Federal Council decision to open the consultation procedure for the revision of the LDP
Vaud: first trial on the occasion of the November vote with the Geneva system 2019Publication of the Swiss Post system source code with claims of complete verifiability Opening of the platform to register to participate in the public intrusion test
Realization of the public intrusion test, demonstrating failure of verifiability2023Some cantons are authorized to use electronic voting for National Council elections.
During the late 1990s, the idea of modernizing elections by providing a remote form of voting spread among European countries. In that matter, Switzerland was no exception, but unlike others it had already been using a form of remote voting systems, postal voting. It was previously well established that the initialization of postal voting had increased turnout rates by 4 percent on average, and unsurprisingly promoters of internet voting hoped that this new form of voting would quickly get accepted by the voters and ideally further increase the turnout rates especially amongst the young.
In terms of the progression of internet voting, several parliamentary motions were put forward at the beginning of the 2000s. The actual implementation process however was rolled out at a slow rate since it involved numerous evaluations and testing of different models. In this regard, the role of the federal agencies would mostly be limited to facilitating experiments rather than implementing trials, which was what actually happened when Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Zürich took up the internet voting challenge and the federal agencies initially only provided financing. The result of this approach is that the three cantons had developed three different internet voting methods. Among these models, those of Geneva and Zürich have only one significant difference, which is that while the Zürich model is operated by a private company the one in Geneva is managed by the canton itself. Neuchâtel's system differs from the two in the sense that internet voting is integrated into an e-government portal that required citizens to first register at the municipality. In Geneva and Zürich cases, there is no initial registration required since the voters are mailed the necessary information before every election. The first internet voting trials were conducted in 2003 in a municipality of Geneva, and within two years Zürich and Neuchâtel had also held their first trials.
In the early phase of Internet voting trials, Swiss voters abroad were not included. This soon changed when the Swiss government acknowledged its desire to make internet voting available to the large expatriate community. One of the most significant leading factors to this inclusion is the role played by the Organization of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), the main advocacy organization for expatriate interests, which was firmly behind the internet voting initiative. The community of Swiss living abroad was a natural target group since the difficulties they faced while using postal voting were well known. Also facilitating the process for this group was hoped to further boost the turnout rates since they make up 10 percent of the electorate. Since their low participation and lack of media attention on this group the Swiss abroad were considered to be an ideal test group. Moreover, if this new platform had a significant effect on the turnout rates, it would further strengthen the domestic debate. The legal basis was laid shortly, and by June 2008 Neuchâtel had become the first canton to offer internet voting to its community that lives abroad. The two other pioneer cantons were quick to follow with Geneva in 2009 and Zürich in 2010. However, what is interesting is that all Swiss cantons can make internet voting available to their expatriate voters even if their own domestic residents are not yet allowed. By 2009 Basel-City had become the first of the non-pilot cantons to use it for its voters abroad and within a two years timeframe by nine other cantons joined (Argovia, Bern, Fribourg, Grisons, Lucerne, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau).
Although trials were successful in several cantons, in the beginning, the new mode of remote voting was not envisioned to have a smooth transition and was not expected to be widely used in all Swiss cantons before many years. One of the main reasons for this was the different traditions and voting procedures in different cantons. Another reason was the typically slow adoption of new systems in Switzerland. However, in 2019 Swiss Post took an initiative to enable e-voting in the whole of Switzerland.
Usage of internet voting (2003–2015)
The argument that internet voting would increase voter turnout was frequently used in parliamentary debates by advocates; also its high usage would justify the means such as the high financial costs and allocated resources. To keep track of the internet voting usage rates a database was maintained that reported results in as much as detail since the first vote in 2003.
Studies about the evolution of e-voting user rates in the three pilot cantons portrait two main social effects that explain the usage pattern over time; the novelty and the convenience effects. Geneva and Zürich illustrate the novelty effect, where drastic downward falls are observed on the usage rates right after initialization. This fall might be due to some voters testing the new system of voting just because it is new, but then return to their usual voting method due to habits. In the Geneva case, the disadvantageous effect of long-term interruption of e-voting (between 2005 and 2009) on the usage rates is depicted. Before the interruption, rate used to be 20% and afterward it was only 15%. In general, the convenience of the postal voting has kept the internet voting levels low; however, they are speculated to eventually grow as younger voters are much more inclined to use the internet. The fact that the voters in Neuchâtel first need to register at the municipality to gain access to the e-government portal had an effect of lack of convenience. However, a small-sized increase in e-voting is observed in 2011, which can be explained by the introduction of the opportunity to file taxes electronically through the same e-government portal, which seem to enticed some citizens to try and use internet voting.
Usage rates of the expatriate have a growth rate of 2% each year. In Neuchâtel, the requirement to sign up in person to use the e-government system at the municipality has resulted in lower rates, since this is an even higher burden to those who live abroad. Studies also show that Geneva scores lower than the rest of the cantons, which is speculated to be because of the “fake” expatriates who live just across the border in France to avoid housing prices in Geneva.
The two main conclusions that can be made from these studies are; first, the expiries’ natural higher incentive in e-voting due to convenience is reflected in moderately higher usage rates; second, over the years the online channel has gained popularity among Swiss expatriates in contrast to Swiss residents who tend to drop the new channel after the novelty effect wears out.
Socio-demographic profile of internet voters
Studies are done to assess what is known about internet voters on the individual level and examine their socio-demographic characteristics. The results are based on within-voter comparison which is the differences between internet voters and other voters (postal or ballot box voters)
Age Studies have concluded that young voters tend to use internet voting more often compared to older voters. Interestingly, not the voters aged between 18 and 29 use the platform most intensively but rather voters in 30–39 years range. Also, the results indicate that younger voters to use e-voting not because they are young but because they tend to have more IT skills and higher internet affinity.
Gender