[1] In the following years, the number of people able to use electronic voting grew as more and more cantons began adopting such a system.
A committee of politicians and computer experts is launching a people's initiative aimed at banning online voting for at least five years, until the system is proven secure.
[5] The controversy grew after researchers from the University of Melbourne discovered Swiss Post's system had a security flaw in its commitment scheme.
[6] [1] Neuchâtel: Swiss citizens abroad admitted for the first time Roadmap and institution of the steering committee Trials in fourteen cantons Trials in four cantons at the National Council election (GE, BS, LU, NE) Dissolution of the "Electronic Vote" consortium Freiburg: resumption of tests, first use of the Swiss Post system Adoption of the new planning instrument for the introduction of electronic voting by the Confederation and the cantons Certification of the Swiss Post system for use by 50% of the cantonal electorate Resumption of trials in the cantons of Aargau and St. Gallen with the canton of Geneva system Partial revision of the OVotE (publication of the source code) Federal Council decision to open the consultation procedure for the revision of the LDP Vaud: first trial on the occasion of the November vote with the Geneva system Opening of the platform to register to participate in the public intrusion test Realization of the public intrusion test, demonstrating failure of verifiability[8] During the late 1990s, the idea of modernizing elections by providing a remote form of voting spread among European countries.
The actual implementation process however was rolled out at a slow rate since it involved numerous evaluations and testing of different models.
Neuchâtel's system differs from the two in the sense that internet voting is integrated into an e-government portal that required citizens to first register at the municipality.
This soon changed when the Swiss government acknowledged its desire to make internet voting available to the large expatriate community.
The community of Swiss living abroad was a natural target group since the difficulties they faced while using postal voting were well-known.
The legal basis was laid shortly, and by June 2008 Neuchâtel had become the first canton to offer internet voting to its community that lives abroad.
However, what is interesting is that all Swiss cantons can make internet voting available to their expatriate voters even if their own domestic residents are not yet allowed.
Geneva and Zürich illustrate the novelty effect, where drastic downward falls are observed on the usage rates right after initialization.
The fact that the voters in Neuchâtel first need to register at the municipality to gain access to the e-government portal had an effect of lack of convenience.
However, a small-sized increase in e-voting is observed in 2011, which can be explained by the introduction of the opportunity to file taxes electronically through the same e-government portal, which seem to enticed some citizens to try and use internet voting.
In Neuchâtel, the requirement to sign up in person to use the e-government system at the municipality has resulted in lower rates, since this is an even higher burden to those who live abroad.
The two main conclusions that can be made from these studies are; first, the expiries’ natural higher incentive in e-voting due to convenience is reflected in moderately higher usage rates; second, over the years the online channel has gained popularity among Swiss expatriates in contrast to Swiss residents who tend to drop the new channel after the novelty effect wears out.
To conclude the studies has found that internet voting has primarily been a service to the young and privileged, who tend to live in comparatively more wealthy households, have relatively higher education, be male and between 18 and 49 years old.
Additionally, individuals with disabilities may prefer the use of their home computers where they provide conveniences over traditional forms of writing and communication.
Also, for example, e-voting systems could be equipped with added features to assist those with visual or hearing impairments and appeal to a greater audience.
Usage of e-voting may induce an efficiency increase since the process could get accelerated, arranged more accurately and invalid polls could be prevented.
The development of the infrastructure of e-voting is costly, since it includes computers, building up servers, hiring experts and buying the software.
Thus, the whole system might be interpreted as a “black box” by the community, which pulls transparency to bare minimum and damages credibility and trust.
An important motivation for the Swiss government to pass e-voting is fast changes in information and communications technologies and indeed political life.
Hans-Urs Wili from the Federal Chancellery points out that introduction of e-voting is necessary if direct democracy as it exists today in Switzerland is to be kept alive.
In Geneva, local voters’ registries have been linked electronically since before the start of the e-voting project on the contrary of many other cantons.
Also voters are encouraged to know how the electronic ballot box and the voting register work, how the servers are monitored and what happens if an attack is detected.
In this system, voters authenticate themselves to the voting website using their birthdate and an initialization code they receive from Swiss Post by mail.
Experts find serious problems with this system such as its poor design, high level of complexity and possibility of letting someone alter votes during the shuffling phase without detection.
To prove the system's security against attacks, Swiss Post has launched a public penetration test and bug bounty program.
Another important point is that e-voting server where all the votes are stored until counting must be absolutely secure and invulnerable to attacks.
[17] The Swiss population shows greater trust in voting at the polling station or with the postal system than via the internet.