Federal Council wants rules for canceling and postponing ballots
Published: Friday, Dec 15th 2023, 13:20
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The Federal Council wants to introduce legal rules for canceling and postponing ballots. It wants to introduce voting templates for people with visual impairments. The necessary amendments to the Political Rights Act and an associated ordinance are subject to consultation until April 12, 2024.
With the bill, the Federal Council wants to implement parliamentary demands, as it wrote on Friday. Firstly, it wants to stipulate that votes may be canceled if the voters are unable to form their will due to a serious disruption.
Another reason for canceling or postponing the vote may be that voting and counting may be severely disrupted. This is the Federal Council's response to a cancellation: the Federal Council had canceled the vote in May 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Parliament then demanded legal provisions on the exercise of political rights in crises.
A second change is intended to benefit blind and visually impaired people. They should be able to fill in ballot papers for federal votes themselves with the help of templates - another innovation that Parliament has called for. However, according to the Federal Council, it is unlikely to be possible to use templates for National Council elections.
Voting complaints are also to be the subject of the revised law. In future, it should be possible to lodge a complaint directly with the Federal Supreme Court against irregularities in votes and National Council elections that affect several cantons or that originate from a federal administrative authority.
Today, complaints in such cases must be submitted to the cantonal government. However, because it has no jurisdiction, the cantonal government cannot take any action.
Other points for revision concern technical aids for counting votes and the blank ballot dates. In future, the first federal ballot of the year is to take place on February 22 at the earliest - to give the Federal Council and campaign managers enough time after the holidays. The voting date in the second quarter will be adjusted accordingly.
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