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 aboard 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.
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, the 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.
Studies have found out that men are over-presented among internet voters. However, the size of the gender bias varies from study to study. Also, the findings suggest that it is the gender difference regarding variables such as IT skills that create this gap in e-voting rates rather than gender per se.
Income.
Studies on Swiss residents shows that voters living in high-income households use the internet channel disproportionally more often; however, no study has looked at the effect of income differences in expatriate context yet.
Cities/Rural areas.
Postal polling's success has not been the same in all parts of Switzerland. Rather, it is generally popular in cities where people are accustomed to convenience and simplicity. In more rural regions, the walk to the ballot box is more common. In those areas, it is expected to see a great increase in voter turnout with e-voting.
Education.
Like the other factors, education is also positively correlated to internet voting usage. People with the highest educational attainment tend to be the most over-represented. According to a study for instance, more than one-third of voters with a university degree voted electronically whereas this number is only 2.8 percent for voters with compulsory education. Overall, voters with high education are most likely over to be overrepresented among internet voters in both residents and expatriate trials.
To conclude the studies has found that internet voting has primarily been a service to the young and privileged, who tend to live in comparatively more wealthy households, have relatively higher education, be male and between 18 and 49 years old.
Advantages and disadvantages.
E-voting clearly has both pros and cons and some of the advantages and disadvantages are listed below.
Advantages.
E-voting is a location and time-independent way of voting, which makes it extremely comfortable and convenient for voters who have the means.
E-voting offers people an alternative way of voting for those who may not be able to use the traditional way. This might concern mainly absent, ill, disabled or old citizens. Also, article 6 of the federal law on political rights states that the cantons must assist people with disabilities on the exercise of their political right which would be achieved by e-voting. Additionally, individuals with disabilities may prefer the use of their home computers where they provide conveniences over traditional forms of writing and communication. Also, for example, e-voting systems could be equipped with added features to assist those with visual or hearing impairments and appeal to a greater audience.
With e-voting after having built the infrastructure and accepting the high investment cost, the cost would get redeemed in a few years and the process cost would get lower compared to the traditional vocation channels such as polls or postal ballots.
Usage of e-voting may induce an efficiency increase since the process could get accelerated, arranged more accurately and invalid polls could be prevented.
Disadvantages.
The development of the infrastructure of e-voting is costly, since it includes computers, building up servers, hiring experts and buying the software. For example, the cost of the pilot system used in Zürich during 2004-2006 amounted to 7.9 million CHF for the canton of Zürich and 0.5 million CHF for the communities that attended the project. Moreover, another 3,2 million CHF resulting from the trial period. Which all adds up to 11,2 million CHF. Appraisals assume that the implementation of e-voting in the whole country would cost 400 to 600 million CHF.
E-voting is a very complicated process that requires expertise to comprehend fully. For that reason, only a few operate with the system, on whom every citizen depends and has to trust. Thus, the whole system might be interpreted as a “black box” by the community, which pulls transparency to bare minimum and damages credibility and trust.
A significant disadvantage of e-voting is the level of protection it requires and the fact that it will never be a hundred percent secure, having said that neither going to the polls nor postal voting is fully secure. Although there were not any security breaches or security relating problems during the trials,