Obstacles to counting the votes: Would ‘an agency’ also be chosen?

Problem solved!

For example, if the parliamentarian were to write to Priska Seiler Graf, 55, those sitting next to him would see him scribble a long name on the ballot paper. That’s why he writes some illegible characters on the ballot paper. This makes it invalid. Problem solved!

Misspelled names like John Puld or Beat Jenins would probably be accepted. However, such typos do not make counting any easier.

Even though only fifteen minutes are scheduled for each voting round from 8 a.m., the elections for the Federal Council will drag on. First, the six previous members of the Federal Council will be confirmed in office. First Guy Parmelin (64). That should work quickly.

Cassis’ re-election could take some time

But the second elections could take longer. Here the Greens attack the FDP seat of Ignazio Cassis (62) with national councilor Gerhard Andrey (47). Even if Andrey is more or less unsuccessful, it may take two or three rounds of voting. Especially if someone is joking and just writes to Gerhard. Then Mitte boss Gerhard Pfister (61) could also be meant. This delays the elections.

And can even influence the outcome. Such as in the Roos case from 1999. The two CVP councilors Arnold Koller (90) and Flavio Cotti (1939-2020) resigned. Two CVP women, Rita Roos (72) and Ruth Metzler (59), were nominated as candidates to succeed Koller. In the third round both received 122 votes each. A ballot with the name “Roth” was declared invalid. If it had been given to Roos, she would have become a federal councilor. But in the subsequent replacement elections for Cotti, Jean-François Roth was nominated as a candidate. This is what it was supposed to mean. That cost Roos the elections.

Keller-Sutter doesn’t have to worry

Back to December 13: After the expected confirmation of Cassis in office, the re-election of Viola Amherd (61) should happen quickly. And as can be heard, after a spectacularly failed attack on Cassis, there would hardly be a real attack on Karin Keller-Sutter (59). In this re-election and the next ones for Albert Rösti (56) and Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59), this will probably happen soon – even if someone made a mistake with Kellner-Sutter in the spelling.

Then – it should be noon – the Federal Assembly will pass to Berset’s successor. Theoretically, a single vote could be enough to elect the new member of the Federal Council. This would be the case if 245 National Councilors and State Councilors answered blankly and only Pult wrote his own name.

Drawing instead of names

But it would cause discussion if the election office came across one with a stylish drawing of a desk next to all the empty sheets of paper. That must not be defamatory, because then the vote is invalid. But the drawing can be transferred to the National Council of Graubünden.

Then it would be really exciting if the office had to decide on the desk and the desk.