Milestones

Year  Milestones 
2000 
  • Start of the Vote électronique project with three pilot cantons (GE, NE, ZH)
2002 
  • First report of the Federal Council on internet voting
2003
  • Partial revision of the Federal Act on Political Rights (BPR) and the Ordinance on Political Rights (VPR) to enable trials with internet voting
2004 
  • Geneva: first trials with internet voting for federal votes
2005 
  • Neuchâtel and Zurich: first trials for federal votes
2006 
  • Second report of the Federal Council on internet voting
2008 
  • Geneva, Neuchâtel, Zurich: simultaneous trials
  • Neuchâtel: Swiss living abroad admitted for the first time

2009-2011 

  • Agreements between Geneva and the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Lucerne and Berne for Swiss living abroad
2009 
  • Foundation of the Consortium Vote électronique consisting of the cantons of Aargau, Freiburg, Graubünden, Schaffhausen, St.Gallen, Solothurn and Thurgau
2010 
  • Trials in 12 cantons with three systems: Neuchâtel system, Consortium system (ZH, AG, FR, GR, SH, SG, SO, TG) and Geneva system (GE, BS, LU)
2011 
  • First trials in National Council elections in four cantons (BS, AG, GR, SG). The trials are limited to Swiss living abroad.
  • Roadmap and establishment of the Steering Committee
2012 
  • 50% of Swiss living abroad can use internet voting for federal votes
2013 
  • Third report of the Federal Council on internet voting
2014 
  • Entry into force of the new legal bases (partial revision of the Ordinance on Political Rights, entry into force of the Federal Chancellery Ordinance on Electronic Voting VEleS) with new requirements on security, especially the implementation of complete verifiability and certification
2015 
  • First use of systems with individual verifiability
  • Trials in 14 cantons (BE, ZH, GL, LU, FR, SO, BS, SH, SG, GR, AG, TG, NE, GE)
  • Trials in National Council elections in four cantons (GE, BS, LU, NE)
  • Dissolution of the Consortium
2016 
  • First use of the Swiss Post system (with individual verifiability)
  • Fribourg: Resumption of trials, first use of the Swiss Post system
2017 
  • Strategic course set by the Federal Council: commencement of work on the introduction into regular operation, dematerialisation and measures concerning transparency.
  • The Confederation and the cantons adopt a new planning instrument for the introduction of internet voting.
  • Certification of the Swiss Post system for 50% of the cantonal electorate.
  • Resumption of trials in the cantons of Aargau and St.Gallen with the Geneva system.
2018 
  • Final report of the Expert Group Vote électronique (EXVE)
  • Partial revision of the VEleS (disclosure of the source code)
  • Federal Council decision to open the consultation process on the revision of the Federal Act on Political Rights (regular operation)
  • Vaud: First trial in the November vote with the Geneva system
  • Decision of the canton of Geneva: Geneva system to be operated until February 2020 at the latest.
2019 
  • Publication of the source code of the completely verifiable Swiss Post system.
  • Public intrusion test on the completely verifiable Swiss Post system.
  • Swiss Post system not available for the federal vote of 19 May 2019 due to flaws in the individually verifiable system.
  • Decision of the canton of Geneva: Geneva system to be discontinued in June 2019.
  • Federal Council decision on the results of the consultation on the partial revision of the Federal Act on Political Rights (internet voting as the third regular voting channel) and on the redesign of the trials.
  • Decision of Swiss Post: The individually verifiable system will no longer be available from July 2019.
2020
  • Final report of the Steering Committee Vote électronique "Redesign and relaunch of trials"
2021
  • Consultation procedure on the revision of the Ordinance on Political Rights and the Federal Chancellery Ordinance on Electronic Voting (Redesign of the trial phase)
  • Federal government launches examination of new Swiss Post e-voting system
2022
  • New legislation comes into force (partial revision PoRO and total revision OEV)
2023
  • Basic licences are granted for the relaunch of e-voting trials in June 2023 in the cantons of BS, SG and TG
  • Basic licences are granted for the National Council elections in the cantons of BS, SG and TG
  • Basic licence is granted for trials with online voting in 2024-2026 in the Canton of GR
2025
  • Basis licences granted for e-voting trials in 2025-2027 in the cantons of BS, SG, GR and TG
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