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Corina Casanova, Swiss chancellor

Lucerne welcomes overseas Swiss for the weekend

Geneva and Lucerne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal chancellor, Corina Casanova, told delegates to the annual meeting of the Swiss Abroad Organization in Lucerne that they will all be able to vote electronically by 2015, using a system that will gradually be extended to cover voters registered in all cantons. Switzerland thus becomes a pioneer, with Estonia, of e-voting outside the country. Swiss overseas citizens registered in Geneva will be the first to test the new system, in November 2009: Geneva, along with Neuchatel and Zurich, have been testing e-voting since 2003.

The six years needed to fully develop the programme are due to stringent security requirements as well as the complexity of voting at cantonal plus federal level, with several national languages.

A number of the voters will be able to use e-voting by 2012.

Switzerland has some 700,000 citizens living abroad, roughly 10 percent of the total population. Of these, fewer than 20 percent are registered to vote. Voting is difficult for many people abroad, with only three weeks to receive, fill out and return ballots. The new system will resolve the issue of timing. The Swiss typically vote several times a year on a wide variety of issues at communal, cantonal and federal levels.

Related: Swissinfo, TSR and federal government web pages with practical information for Swiss citizens living abroad

Background, “Basel to offer electronic voting in autumn 2009, thanks to Geneva”, 16 June 2009, GenevaLunch