Swiss Elections to the National Council: First trials with e-voting in elections at federal level

The Swiss people trust the authorities that polls are conducted legally. This trust made it possible to introduce postal voting in 1994. Since then Swiss voters automatically receive postal vote documents and may cast their vote by post without requiring any special reason to do so. Nowadays, this more convenient way to cast votes remotely is established: more than 90% of the votes are cast by post. The new channel was able to stop the sinking participation rate, more so it had a slightly positive effect on voter participation. The postal vote has been the starting point for the development and the introduction of electronic voting.