E-voting and electoral participation

Numerous studies show that, together with the United States, Switzerland presents the lowest average levels of turnout among established democracies. At the same time, Swiss voters are among those most frequently called to the polls, owing to the widespread possibilities for direct democracy on all three levels of the federal state. Not surprisingly, it is also in Switzerland that new means of political participation and in particular remote voting techniques via postal mail or over the Internet have been promoted, tested and implemented most prominently. In this paper we will try to empirically assess a number of hypotheses on the role and impact of new means of participation in referendums. In doing so, we will focus on data stemming from a recent referendum vote where a multi-channel approach for participation was chosen. In September 2004, and after several pilot votes on the communal level, the Swiss canton of Geneva offered over 20'000 citizens the possibility to cast their votes over the internet in a federal referendum. For the first time in the world, parts of the electorate were able to cast their votes through remote internet voting for a binding decision on the national level. Accompanying the introduction of e-voting mechanisms in the canton of Geneva, we designed a survey questionnaire that was answered by over 1’000 non-voters, voters at the ballot box, postal voters and evoters. Thanks to this data this contribution tries to shed some further light on the potential effects of e-voting on turnout. Additionally, this contribution will try to measure possible distortions induced by this new channel of participation of the electorate’s political choice at the polls.