Three cantons are allowed to test e-voting again

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The cantons of Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen and Thurgau are allowed to test e-voting again in federal votes. That has been decided by the Bundesrat. However, the license is not unlimited and also limited in time.

On the one hand, only a limited circle of voters can vote electronically: Swiss abroad, people with disabilities in Basel, voters from selected communities in St. Gallen. In contrast, experiments are only allowed until May 2025.

First use in June

E-voting will be used for the first time in the voting on June 18 this year. The three cantons have applied for the approval of about 65,000 voters, which is about 1.2 percent of Switzerland’s voting population.

Swiss Post’s new e-voting system can be used. The system and its operation were checked in several steps by independent experts and the public – as part of a bug bounty program and a public break-in test – and improved by Swiss Post. Enough that it can be used within a limited framework.

According to the Federal Council, e-voting must continue to be improved and revised in the future. The experience gained in practice should also be used for this purpose.

manipulations in the eye

E-voting systems were last used in Switzerland in 2019 for federal voting as part of the test operation. The resumption of trials this year will allow the cantons to use the fully verifiable Swiss Post system for the first time.

Full verifiability is an important measure to ensure the security of e-voting: it makes it possible to detect and respond to any manipulation of the electronically cast votes using control codes and mathematical proofs. (sf)

Source:Blick