The new e-voting system is “miles better than all the alternatives”

The time was right. In May, about one month before the popular votes of 18 June 2023, Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr and members of the National Council and Council of States came together to look closely at the issue of e-voting. An important pilot had been scheduled for 18 June, with the new Swiss Post e-voting system due to be trialled for the first time in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, St Gallen and Thurgau. We now know that the system passed the test – although this outcome was still uncertain at the time of the OSA-initiated meeting of the “Swiss Abroad” parliamentary group.

The Federal Chancellor also believes that e-voting in its new guise is better and safer than the idea put forward by National Councillor Andri Silberschmidt (FDP, canton of Zurich) of dispatching and returning voting papers via diplomatic courier. Thurnherr: “A modern e-voting system is much safer than postal voting – a procedure that we already trust – and more secure than the usual e-banking platforms that we use on a daily basis.”

The parliamentary group co-chair, Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (The Centre, canton of Basel-Landschaft), noted that any decisions to expand the new e-voting pilot to more cantons depended not on the federal government but on the cantons themselves, because it is the cantons that organise the voting process. She agreed with the Federal Chancellor on one thing: if Swiss Abroad express an interest in using e-voting in their canton, this would exert additional pressure and help to change the dynamic.

The Federal Chancellery itself will not put any pressure on the cantons, stressed Thurnherr. Piloting the new e-voting system is their decision alone. “We are not applying pressure or banging the drum. All we want is to be transparent.”