In Switzerland, e-voting means voting online via the internet. The Confederation and the cantons have been conducting trials with e-voting for more than 15 years as part of the ‘Vote électronique’ project. A significant number of voters have been able to cast their ballots online in National Council elections and in popular votes on federal proposals. In over 200 trials to date, a total of 14 cantons have allowed certain groups of citizens to vote online. Up to two-thirds of voters in cantons where online voting is possible have chosen to make use of the e-voting option.
The Confederation and cantons have followed the principle of ‘security before speed’. In Switzerland, e-voting is only permitted if strict requirements under federal law are met. The key security element is verifiability. Currently, systems with individual verifiability are being used.
The system providers and the cantons plan to introduce completely verifiable systems for the first time in 2019.
Certification, the publication of the source code of the systems and the conduct of public intrusion tests are required before systems with complete verifiability can be used.
Under the following links, the federal legislation on electronic voting can be found. Further information is available on the German, French and Italian versions of this website.
