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Migrants also feel connected to Switzerland and want to exercise their voting rights. Photo: trapezoidal
Envelope Came Too Late: Swiss Abroad May Have Shot Out Fighter Plane Outcome
Due to the crown pandemic, many Swiss abroad did not receive their voting envelopes. You could have reversed the vote on fighter jets.
8,670 votes made the difference. At 50.1 percent, the fighter model outperformed by a hair. The result is so close that many even speak of luck. Several factors could have annulled the result of the vote, for example, the votes of the Swiss abroad.
More than 607,000 Swiss citizens with the right to vote live abroad. Twelve cantons each show separately how their citizens abroad voted, including Zurich, Lucerne and Basel-Stadt. Of these cantons, 51.1 percent of the Swiss abroad said no to the fighter jet. With that they would have sent the bachab template.
Of course not to the hilt
The Swiss abroad said an even clearer no to Gripen in 2014, at around 59 percent. This is shown in the figures for ten cantons. At the time, the bill was rejected with a Swiss average of 53.4 percent.
For many Swiss abroad, the voting red book often comes too late. Image: keystone
The Swiss abroad could have changed the outcome. Many of them received the voting papers too late. “That happens over and over again,” says Jézael Fritsche of the Organization of the Swiss Abroad (OSA). The corona pandemic made the problem even worse.
Post delayed due to Corona
The voting books barely made it abroad. About 90 per cent of Swiss residents living in Australia received the envelope too late or did not receive the envelope. This was demonstrated in a survey conducted by delegate Katja Wallimann Gates among the Swiss abroad. Mail delivery in Australia was delayed due to Corona.
The problem does not only affect Oceania: “A Swiss woman in Sweden received the documents on September 15, although the envelopes were taken to the post office on August 14,” says Maria Bühlmann. She is director of the electoral register of the Swiss Abroad in the canton of Aargau. According to Bühlmann, shipping to Sweden usually takes four days.
Corona is currently affecting mail transfers so much in some countries that they have imposed an acceptance limit. These include Afghanistan, Bolivia, Cape Verde and Laos, says Bühlmann from the cantonal office in Aargau. “We were unable to send a total of 41 voting envelopes due to the mail stoppage.” The list of these countries is long and constantly changing.
Envelopes shipped earlier
The Federal Council expected mail delivery abroad to be delayed due to the corona pandemic. Therefore, it allowed the cantons to send the voting envelopes one week earlier than usual. “Swiss Post sent the documents for the Swiss abroad on August 17, six weeks earlier,” says Stephan Ziegler, Head of Elections and Voting in the Canton of Zurich. Normally, envelopes can be sent to Swiss abroad at least five weeks before the vote and to Swiss residents four weeks before.
Electronic voting is intended to allow voting
ASO’s Fritsche sees the solution for the Swiss abroad in electronic voting. This allows them to vote in good time and independently of the local post office. Because the Swiss abroad could tip the electoral balance in the future, even without the Crown. However, so far there is no approved system.
