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Voting from Abroad Database

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Switzerland

Switzerland

Year	Election type	Voting method	First year	Comments
2023	Legislative Referendums Sub-national	Postal e-voting	1977	Internet voting has been re-introduced during the 2023 Federal Elections. Although it was available for voters from only few cantons (see sources for further details).
2019	Legislative Sub-national Referendums	Postal	1977	E-voting has been put on hold and has not been used in any forms during 2019 elections. According to officials, e-voting practices need further tests and developments. Data has been updated in January 2020.
2011	Legislative Sub-national Referendums	Postal e-voting	1977	The initiative for e-voting started with the introduction of amendment to the Federal Law on Political Rights in 1994 (Article 8a) to initiate pilot schemes in some cantons. Later in 2008 e-voting from abroad was introduced in several cantonal level elections. At the national level, e-voting from abroad was introduced in 2011 federal elections. See sources of the data for more details. (Data has been updated in April 2018).
1989	Legislative Sub-national Referendums	Postal	1977	Postal voting was implemented in 1989. Personal voting is still used only in the territory of Switzerland, i.e. electors should return to their commune is Switzerland in order to vote. See sources for more information.
1977	Legislative Sub-national Referendums	Personal	1977	Swiss electors were allowed to vote from abroad in 1977. However they had to travel back to Switzerland in order to vote. Even though the legislation provided for postal voting, it was not implemented until 1989.

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