Senate in favour of digital signature collection for Swiss votes

Popular initiatives: signature collection to be digitized Keystone-SDA

Signatures for popular initiatives and referendums could be collected via digital channels.

The Senate supported a Radical-Liberal motion for digital signature collection in the wake of the forged signature scandal. The matter came to light in the autumn, when media reports revealed that commercial companies were suspected of falsifying signatures.

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The motion calls for the collection and verification processes to be digitised for security and efficiency reasons. The proponents of the motion believe the government is far too conservative on this issue despite governing in a digital age.

Federal Chancellor Viktor Rossi argued that the government believes that the time is not yet ripe for a complete change. The governing Federal Council recently opened the door to testing electronic signature collection.

The Senate was not willing to wait and approved the motion on digital signature by 20 votes to 15, with three abstentions. The House of Representatives still has to give the green light.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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