Sunday morning thoughts – October 22, 2023

Swiss election and voting edition

This one is going to be educational. Hope you had your coffee.

Switzerland is often called a direct democracy and I know I’ve called it that too. That’s not entirely true - semi-direct would be more accurate. It does feel direct though. I mean we once voted on subsidies for farmers based on whether they de-horned their cows. So, that’s the kind of thing we vote on.

Normally there are four votes a year with elections just thrown into the mix whenever they happen. We all vote by mail (the Swiss postal service delivers them for free) or just put our votes into the mailbox at the town hall. Also, in Switzerland every Swiss citizen who turns 18 is AUTOMATICALLY registered to vote. I don’t know how other countries that call themselves democracies don’t do that. But that’s a different story. At this point I will not mention when women got the right to vote in Switzerland – it’s too embarrassing. You might wanna check out the movie “The Divine Order”. It’s really well done and describes why it took so long extremely well. The original title is “Die göttliche Ordnung” for those of you who want to look for the German version. It will be subtitled though as it was filmed in Swiss German.

How do we vote then? There is no time limit in terms of how early you can vote. Once you get your envelope that’s it, you can open it, fill in your votes and drop it off in five minutes if you live as close to the town hall as I do. Or you can go drop it off the morning of as well. The polling station in my town is open from 8.30 to 9. Yes, you read that right. They are only open for 30 minutes the day of the vote. That’s because nobody – well, hardly anybody - goes to the polls anymore. The last polling stations across the country close at noon. This means that the first results are usually in right after. And nope, it doesn’t matter how many people there are who vote. It’s all a matter of organization. If you want your votes to be counted by 5 PM, you make sure you have enough people to count the votes. Also, votes are not transported to other far away places. I put my envelope in the mailbox outside the building, it is taken inside and that’s as far as it goes.

We got this down.

Canton Aargau - voting envelope.

I made this little collage for you to see what that envelope looks like in my canton. Picture one is the front with my address covered. Picture two is the back where you have instructions on where to place your fingers in order to open it properly (in a way that it can be resealed). There’s a second envelope inside this envelope and that’s where you put your votes. You seal that. And in picture four you can see the sealed envelope containing the votes. To that you add your voting eligibility card (Stimmrechtsausweis) that has your address, the address of your polling station, the date of the vote and also the opening times of the polling station on it. You need to sign this and place it inside that first envelope.

Now, if you’re paying attention, you see that the envelope is upside down in the last picture. That’s because my address and the address of the town hall are on the same card, you just need to turn it around so the correct address shows up in that little window.

Ever municipality can start counting their votes once their polling station has closed. They are not allowed to publish any results before noon though – that’s when the last polling station in the country closes. My region is known for being really fast in counting votes. Not really a matter of pride as such, but I like knowing we have our results quickly. Not entirely sure if there was a time when results came in super late or even the next day. There might have been. Usually, all results are in by 5 PM at the latest though.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, today is election/voting day. We are electing our Federal Parliament. My canton can send 16 members to the National Council in Bern. This is based on population numbers. We’re the fourth largest after Zurich, Bern and Vaud. And we’re also sending two representatives to the Council of States. Every canton sends two – except for half-cantons who send one each. Yes, I said half-cantons. There’s six of those. So, that’s a total of 46 seats. With those seats party affiliation doesn’t matter as much. You want people who can work together constructively in that council.

Anyway, in my voting envelope there was some information about what we’re voting on. It always says how parliament voted and pro/con arguments are available. If it is a change in the law or even the constitution all that information is given as well. It’s quite extensive. There’s also an app and the information is always available in several languages – of course.

When there are federal elections, we don’t usually vote on very high profile things at the same time. So, the only thing we’re voting on today in my town is money spent on that big empty space right outside my building (top left in picture one). All the other things are elections. You get a list of names to choose from and sometimes you can just put anybody you like as well. Very much depends on the kind of election. It will tell you who’s eligible to be elected – no need to worry.

Contents of the voting envelope

Now for those 16 members of the National Council, I’m sure you’re dying to know my selection process. Glad you asked. We get tons of lists. One for every party (there’s 16+ different ones – I forgot to count; and there can be different numbers of parties in every canton) and then there’s combined lists or something. I didn’t follow that development because I always take an empty list and fill in people - rather than elect a specific party. You can take a pre-printed party list and just leave it as is and that’s your vote. The party gets votes and the people on the list get votes. Party votes are added up and that decides how many seats a party gets. Then those seats are filled with the people in that party who got the most votes. So, it’s party first, then the number of votes you get. That means that in a party that is popular you will need more votes to get one of their seats.

The fun begins when you start crossing off people on party lists or adding people from other parties. You can also put people you like on your list twice. It really is fun. And confusing if it’s your first time voting. Anyway, I always take a blank list (see picture two).

I have 16 slots and I put seven people on there twice and then added an extra two. So that’s nine people and four parties. You get leaflets from each party with pictures and very short bios for their top candidates and for lesser-known ones you just get their age (well, actually the very Swiss thing of giving people the year you were born rather than your age) and their profession. I don’t elect people based on their age, but their jobs are important. I’m likely to elect scientists and teachers, you can’t go wrong with teachers. Lawyers on the other hand – probably not.

Then there’s always the group of candidates you know. Knowing them will either make you vote for them or definitely NOT vote for them. Of course, there are also parties that I’d never vote for. And, since anybody can just start their own party sometimes there’s a party list with one name on it. I’m giving you a few examples in pictures three and four.

Have I told you about the posters? It’s insane. It starts before you’re even able to vote. Candidates buy ad space at train stations (well, maybe not candidates themselves, but the bigger parties do) and there are posters up all around town. Farmers are asked if they will allow posters on their land. There also seem to be official poster hanging spots in town. Not sure if that’s entirely accurate but they are there in the same spot every year and all major parties are represented. It could also be that whoever owns that fence where the posters hang has officially allowed posters. Who knows.

The posters are usually of the candidate’s face and there may be a slogan. Who is on the posters outside your house can depend on which party is most popular in your area since candidates are more likely to be elected closer to where they live. Top candidates for every canton are on posters in all districts. I should know, I’ve been walking the length of the northern border of the canton of Aargau. Same faces all over.

I’m going to write another article on the technical aspect of voting in Switzerland – majorities, referenda, initiatives, representation in parliament and such. I guess I could add that here, but my Sunday thoughts rule is not to look anything up. School has been a while and I don’t think I can remember all the details. Also, I will need to read up on semi-direct vs. direct democracy.

So this was on my mind today. We’re expecting a move to the right which is worrying and the green party is expected to lose seats which is equally worrying. I guess that’s why I shared a picture of their heads above.

Happy Sunday every one. Beautiful and sunny here.

This was yesterday in the hills above Aarau heading north for a change.