Dear e-voting enthusiasts and members of the e-voting community
Digital voting is already a reality in Switzerland. Since the start of the pilot operation with Swiss Post’s e-voting system in June 2023, the cantons of Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen, Graubünden and Thurgau have successfully conducted 13 contests, including the national elections in October 2023. The feedback so far has been positive. The system offers security, stability and user-friendliness. In 2025, more than 50,000 votes were cast electronically, and the insights gained from this have been incorporated into further development. For 2026, we’ve set ourselves the ambitious goal of achieving 100,000 votes via e-voting.
Below, we look back on the highlights of 2025 and present an outlook for the next milestones. I hope you enjoy reading about them, and I look forward to your feedback.
A representative survey published in the summer of 2025 by the YouGov public opinion research institute shows that 78 percent of the Swiss public would like e-voting to supplement ballot boxes and postal voting. The advantages are clear: better access for Swiss citizens abroad (77%), easier voting (73%) and a higher voter turnout (72%). Around two thirds of those surveyed also have confidence in Swiss Post’s e-voting solution.
In 2025, Swiss Post’s e-voting system was used during four contests. In 2025, 56,622 votes were cast electronically by Swiss citizens abroad in Basel-Stadt, Graubünden, St. Gallen and Thurgau, as well as by voters in 22 pilot municipalities in the canton of Graubünden and 66 municipalities in the canton of St. Gallen.
E-voting on the agenda at “BärnHäckt”
From 22 to 24 August 2025, the city of Bern became a hub for digital innovation and cybersecurity. The “BärnHäckt” hackathon brought together more than 100 experts from development, design, business development and IT security. For the first time, Swiss Post was participating as a topic sponsor for security in software development. The event provided the IT security and innovation community with an inspiring platform for discussion and collaboration. In October, some of the e-voting team also participated in the international e-voting conference “E-Vote-ID” in Nancy (France) and in other events during the year, such as “Hacktober”.
Over a period of four weeks in the summer of 2025, external professional hackers put Swiss Post’s e-voting system through its paces. At the invitation of Swiss Post, they attempted to identify vulnerabilities in the e-voting system. During the hacker test, Swiss Post registered activities from around 2,600 IP addresses. Despite around 8,800 attacks and the e-voting system being accessed a total of 142,433 times, no one managed to hack into the electronic ballot box or exploit security vulnerabilities. This proves once again that when it comes to electronic voting, security is the top priority.
Cryptographers and IT specialists continued to examine the documents and source codes for Swiss Post’s e-voting system on an ongoing basis in 2025 and again submitted dozens of reports, 34 of which were confirmed. They differed in terms of their severity. Since the start of the community program five years ago, Swiss Post has paid out a total of more than 236,000 euros in rewards for confirmed findings. To date, Swiss Post has received a total of more than 600 reports from ethical hackers and IT specialists.
Outlook for 2026: other cantons and municipalities are introducing e-voting
On 8 March 2026, Thurgau voters in five pilot municipalities will be able to vote electronically for the first time. The evaluation of the pilot phase will be followed by a gradual extension to all interested municipalities from 2027. From September 2026, Swiss citizens abroad from Lucerne will be able to vote electronically for the first time. Pilot municipalities and people with visual impairments will follow from 2028. From September 2026, the Canton of Basel-Stadt will offer e-voting to its voters in the city of Basel. A canton in Western Switzerland will also start its pilot testing with Swiss citizens and Swiss citizens abroad in November 2026. The canton will announce this step in the spring. For Swiss Post, the integration of additional municipalities and cantons is a vote of confidence in our system.
New system release set to improve the user experience in 2026
The e-voting system to be deployed in 2026 offers numerous improvements for more efficient and convenient voting. The entire process – from the portal to the voting card – has been revamped to enhance transparency, clarity and intuitive use. The modernised design and new processes will be available for viewing and testing at demo.evoting.ch. Besides the optimised user experience thanks to ongoing online surveys, the new release features stronger infrastructure with greater stability and security. Key system components have been improved to ensure scalability, reduced complexity and availability throughout the year. In addition, the Federal Chancellery’s requirements have been implemented and processes, interfaces and the architecture have been simplified.
You can now also find comprehensive information about e-voting and our e-voting community on our modernised and even more user-friendly Swiss Post Digital website.
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