Consultation on the realignment of e-voting trial operations

Statement of the Advisory Board Cybersecurity of SATW on the new e-voting trial:

For around fifteen years, voters in various cantons have been able to vote electronically as part of a trial operation. With the revision of the underlying ordinances, the Federal Council is drawing lessons from the trial operation in order to create a new, stable basis for e-voting trial operation. SATW's Advisory Board Cybersecurity has published a statement on the revision, in which it draws on the statements made in the position paper "e-Society in Switzerland" of April 2019 and expands on them.

Well-founded opinion-forming process and high voter turnout

In its statement, the Advisory Board identifies six areas of action that are of central importance in the realignment of e-voting trial operations. Among other things, the SATW experts point out that, in addition to technical issues, particular importance should be attached to supporting voters in reaching their opinions. E-voting is the process of casting a vote electronically, which should only take place after the subject has been addressed. At the same time, the opinion-forming process must be prevented from becoming less important because voting electronically is now easier and faster.

Critically scrutinize priorities in the area of e-government

With e-voting, Switzerland's most important democratic process is to be digitized. In SATW's view, neither the approaches being pursued nor the public discussion have reached a level of maturity that would allow the most important pillar of direct democracy to be built upon them. The Advisory Board therefore recommends that priorities in the area of e-government be critically scrutinized and that the focus be placed first on projects whose implementation is of greater importance, urgency or direct benefit to Switzerland. One example of this is the elimination of fundamental security risks in critical infrastructures.

Traceability

SATW is convinced that trust and transparency must be central from the outset. This also means that it must be comprehensible to non-experts how the process works: Each vote is counted correctly and exactly once, while at the same time maintaining the secrecy of the ballot. Questions about the ease with which citizens can verify the process must be addressed with particular care. Consideration must also be given to what happens if, on the day after a vote, even the suspicion of manipulation is expressed and a flood of complaints about voting rights is received. If the relevant processes are not defined for this or are not designed to be efficient enough, the e-voting system could be paralyzed for some time as a result.

Source: SATW