Lucerne to Test Electronic Voting in Upcoming Referendums

The Swiss canton of Lucerne will be permitted to conduct electronic voting trials during upcoming referendums. The Confederation granted authorization on Wednesday for the canton to test the system until November 2028.

The authorization is valid for a limited segment of the electorate up to the November 26, 2028, vote. Lucerne aims to offer e-voting to its approximately 7,000 Swiss citizens living abroad starting with the September 27 referendum. When combined with voters in St. Gallen, Graubünden, and Thurgau who already have access to e-voting, a total of 181,000 individuals, or 3.24% of the Swiss electorate, will be eligible to vote electronically.

Cantons and the Federal Chancellery have reported positive outcomes from e-voting trials thus far. This includes an incident in March in the canton of Basel-Stadt where 2,048 votes could not be deciphered. Federal authorities clarified that this issue was linked to the canton's use of PIN-protected USB keys and not the e-voting system provided by Swiss Post.

The canton of Neuchâtel has also decided to reintroduce e-voting and is awaiting federal approval for a launch by the November 29 referendum. Neuchâtel was an early adopter of e-voting between 2005 and 2019, but the system, also developed by Swiss Post, required revisions due to significant errors found in its source code.