The Swiss are in favour of electronic voting
Keystone-SDA
In a survey conducted by the market research institute YouGov and Swiss Post, 78% of around 2,000 respondents were in favour of the introduction of electronic voting in Switzerland. This is in addition to voting by letter and at the ballot box.
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Some 77% of respondents aged between 18 and 74 from all parts of the country hoped that e-voting would improve access to voting for the Swiss Abroad, Swiss Post reported on Monday.
Some 73% of respondents also hoped that the introduction would make voting easier and 72% expected a higher voter turnout. Two thirds of respondents also saw advantages for visually impaired or blind people.
However, concerns were also expressed at the same time: 43% of respondents feared that voting secrecy could be jeopardised. They were also concerned about possible manipulation of the e-voting system.
However, almost two thirds of respondents stated that they trusted Swiss Post as a technical provider. The system is fully verifiable, Swiss Post also announced. This means that the entire electronic voting process can be checked.
The Swiss Post system can also be used to detect possible manipulation. Since 2021, Swiss Post has had the e-voting system tested by hackers from all over the world in order to identify security vulnerabilities.
Used in four cantons so far
Swiss Post’s e-voting system was used for the first time in the federal votes on June 18, 2023 in the cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau and Basel-Stadt. The system has also been tested in the canton of Graubünden since March 2024.
At the end of June 2025, the federal government granted the four cantons authorisation to continue the e-voting trials. The basic authorisation remains valid for a limited target group and initially until the ballot on June 6, 2027.
The cantons and the Federal Chancellery have given a positive assessment of the trials to date, as announced by the Federal Council. However, the canton of Bern now also wants to consider participating in the e-voting pilot trial.
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Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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