The Council of
the Swiss Abroad (CSA) has decided to find mechanisms to increase the
voting turnout of younger generations and enfranchise Swiss citizens abroad by
means of online voting.
Therefore, the
Council would like to implement this technology, already successful in countries
like Estonia, a trailblazer and a leader in Internet voting, employing the
practice in their national elections since 2005.
During their
annual congress, held in early August, the CSA debated about electronic and
online voting, taking into account the constant requests to the Swiss
government to employ innovations that make it easier for Swiss citizens abroad
to vote.
The
CSA’s leading committee considers that broadening the possibility to vote
for their members will grant the organization greater legitimacy. “The models
applied by the UK and Belgium can serve as models for our communities in other
countries”.
Those promoting
e-voting have argued that some Swiss expats lack the possibility to cast their
votes, since postal voting is not reliable enough in some of the countries they
reside in.
With an Internet voting model it
is possible to guarantee that citizens have access to the vote from anywhere in
the world by using a smartphone, a tablet or a computer. This technology
guarantees that the will of each citizen is recorded securely, transparently
and precisely, doing away with the human errors that commonly take place during
traditional manual voting.
The CSA, which
convenes every two years, represents the interests of over 760 thousand Swiss
citizens residing abroad to the authorities and the media.
