E-voting debacle in Basel: embarrassing glitch or serious problem?

While the cantons have a good deal of room for manoeuvre, the e-voting test at the national level is bound by narrower limits: 30% of the cantonal and 10% of the Swiss electorate may use e-voting. Keystone

A computer glitch in canton Basel City meant 2,048 votes received electronically for Sunday’s national votes could not be counted. All keys to the electronic ballot box failed. How serious is this incident?

In canton Basel City around 10,300 Swiss citizens living abroad who are entered in the electoral register can vote electronically. However, on March 8 their votes remained inaccessible to the counters – as did those of 30 voters with disabilities who were also able to participate in this way. They arrived in the electronic ballot box, but the Basel State Chancellery was unable to open them using the decryption code provided.

+ More than 10,000 Swiss Abroad affected by Basel e-vote problems

The authorities announced on Saturday eveningExternal link that all attempts to open the ballot box failed. “Three USB sticks were used, all with the correct code, but none of them worked,” Basel government spokesperson Marco Greiner told Swissinfo.

There were people at work for whom it had already worked countless times, he said. “But now it no longer works. It’s really very strange.”

Frustration among the diaspora

The Basel authorities emphasise that the error is not in Swiss Post’s e-voting system but solely in Basel’s access to it. Nevertheless, the incident has attracted attention. The Swiss Federal Chancellery also felt compelled to provide information External linkon Friday after the first notification from BaselExternal link. “The e-voting system and in particular the encrypted votes are unaffected by this,” it said.

For the Swiss Abroad from Basel, the frustration is great. Switzerland’s e-voting ambitions have so far been driven by the problem of votes from abroad not reaching the Swiss ballot boxes in time or at all. E-voting was supposed to offer a solution to this problem. The fact that the same problem is now arising again is irritating.

For example, 20 MinutenExternal link reports on a Swiss Abroad who tried to find an alternative voting option immediately after receiving the information from Basel. However, the canton informed her that this was no longer possible. “They are denying you the right to alternative documents. The will of the people is being disregarded,” the woman complained to the canton, according to 20 Minuten.

The Federal Chancellery agrees: the political rights of voters whose votes cannot be counted are being violated, a spokesperson told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)External link.

Another Swiss Abroad who is affected asked on XExternal link: “What happens if the yes and no votes are a thousand votes apart?”

No impact on results

For most voters, every vote counts. However, the authorities weren’t worried that the result would be distorted: the 1,800 votes cast electronically on Friday accounted for 3.4% of the turnout at that time.

The canton is still leaving one option open. “For the time being and until the government announces the result, it is still possible to take the votes into account if the problem is resolved,” the State Chancellery of Basel City wrote in a press releaseExternal link on Sunday. “For this reason, the deadline of 13 days after the voting Sunday will be exhausted and publication of the result in the cantonal gazette will wait until the last possible date, March 21, 2026.”

Nevertheless, the debacle revitalised the fundamental debate on e-voting. Parliamentarian Balthasar Glättli from the left-wing Green Party told the NZZ am Sonntag: “If one of the four votes was extremely close, it would have to be repeated.” In order for the population to accept a result, everything would have to run smoothly, he said.

Franz Grüter from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, who has long campaigned against e-voting, is calling for the Federal Chancellery to bury the project. Trust in democracy is at stake, and even minor mishaps would damage it, he said.

Electronic voting is currently being trialled in four cantons, with a limited number of voters. In addition to Basel, cantons Thurgau, Graubünden and St Gallen are also on board. This is the second attempt to establish an e-voting system in Switzerland. The first attempt failed in 2019 after serious security flaws were discovered in the system in question.

For the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad, a broader introduction of e-voting in Switzerland is a political priority. It has been campaigning for years for better participation of the Swiss diaspora.

The current system will not solve the problem, even if it works. This is because e-voting has so far only shortened the voting process for the Swiss Abroad. Authorisation codes and voting documents are still sent from Switzerland to citizens abroad by post – often far too late.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Translated from German by AI/ts

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