The Adventurous Tale of Online Voting in Switzerland

Explore the complex journey of Switzerland's online voting initiatives in this 21-minute conference talk from USENIX Enigma 2021. Delve into the 15-year history of electronic voting systems in Switzerland, examining the challenges, failures, and lessons learned along the way. Discover how security vulnerabilities led to the downfall of multiple generations of voting systems, culminating in the 2019 publication and subsequent shutdown of Swiss Post's source code. Learn about the government's 2020 reboot of the process, involving international researchers in a collaborative effort to address security concerns. Gain insights into the resulting report and its impact on future regulations for online voting in Switzerland. Understand the complexities of implementing secure electronic voting systems in a federal structure, the importance of universal verifiability, and the crucial role of scientific expertise in shaping government policy on critical IT systems.