Swiss Review 4/2019

Swiss Review / July 2019 / No.4 19 tion is the most precious commodity of all: democracy. In this case, Switzerland cannot be too careful: “E-voting con- stitutes an unprecedented risk to security and trust for our direct democracy,” he says. To strengthen the political par- ticipation of the “Fifth Switzerland”, Rimoldi recommends solutions such as decentralised voting at the embassies. Or electronic dispatch of the voting papers, which is being de- manded by his co-initiator and SVP National Councillor Claudio Zanetti (ZH). “E-dispatch” instead of e-voting? Zanetti is a vehement opponent of e-voting, and at the same time a member of the Council of the Swiss Abroad. He acknowledges: “For many Swiss Abroad, the inade- quate postal services in their countries of residence do not make it easy for them to exercise their right to vote. With “e-dispatch”, the post could at least be circumvented in one direction, says Zanetti. On the other hand, Liberal National Councillor Doris Fiala (ZH) fundamentally sup- ports e-voting. “E-voting would be an enormous improve- ment and far easier for voters living abroad,” says Fiala, who is a member of the Swiss Abroad parliamentary group. It makes absolute sense to “bring democracy into the 21st century”, says Fiala. The population is using digital ser- vices more often in their daily life. However, e-voting pre- sents some of the most complex IT problems for the devel- opers: “On the one hand, every vote must be counted correctly; on the other hand, voting secrecy must still be guaranteed.” The national councillor deems the weak- nesses detected in the system of Swiss Post “considerable”. She also advised against a revision of the law at this stage: “The issue is trust,” she says. More than just technology It is interesting to note that age or attitude towards digi- talisation do not determine whether people are for or against e-voting. There are many IT experts among its op- ponents. The usual left-right divide does not feature ei- ther. It has to do with the dimensions of the topic, explains observer Adrienne Fichter, a tech journalist at the online magazine “Republik”: “With the advent of e-voting, there is political discussion about digital technology for the first time.” Even if similar arguments came up during postal voting, e-voting is more about the fact that “an insider can manipulate ten thousand votes without being detected”. This was shown during the security testing of Swiss Post’s system. Fichter, author of the book “Smartphone- Demokratie” [Smartphone Democracy] welcomes the re- sulting debate as the beginning of an “enlightening dis- course” on the opportunities and risks of digital democracy. It is high time that other countries saw Switzerland as an example, she says. Is e-voting still something for the future? The security aspects are also important to the Swiss abroad, emphasises OSA Director Ariane Rustichelli: “As the project coordina- tor, the Federal Chancellery is responsible for e-voting.” For Swiss voters living abroad, one thing counts above all: that they can exercise their political rights. Online voting? The National Council and Council of States’ elections will take place in Switzerland on 20 October. By the time the “Swiss Review” went to press, it was still unclear whether the cantons will be allowed to offer electronic voting. The Federal Council will decide in August. The can- tons must submit separate applications for the elections. The permit that they have for the e-voting test mode does not automatically apply for all votes. During the last national elections in 2015, four cantons offered Internet voting. (SWE) The defects uncovered in Swiss Post’s e-voting system are a bitter setback for the digi- tal voting channel. Photo: Keystone