An App Dedicated to Swiss Voting & Referendums

VoteInfo is interesting in the context of Swiss direct democracy, because it is essentially the Confederation’s digital information infrastructure for helping citizens understand and follow votes and elections.

What is VoteInfo?

VoteInfo is the official Swiss app for information about federal, cantonal and communal votes and elections. It is operated by the Swiss Federal Chancellery together with the Federal Statistical Office and the cantons.

Its purpose is not to allow people to vote electronically. It is an information and results platform. The actual vote is still cast through the established Swiss voting procedures.

You can download it through the official VoteInfo page on ch.ch.

What does it contain?

For an upcoming vote, VoteInfo brings together the information a citizen needs to understand what is being decided.

For federal votes this includes:

• the individual propositions being put to the people;

• explanations of what each proposal means;

• the position and explanations of the Federal Council;

• explanatory videos;

• information concerning the voting process;

• information supplied by cantonal and communal authorities where applicable;

• the results once voting takes place.

It also covers cantonal and communal votes, which is important. You can select the canton and municipality whose votes you want to follow, rather than being presented with only national politics.

For elections, it can provide information about candidates, electoral lists and voting instructions, and it has also been used for the federal elections.

The really interesting part: it follows the whole democratic cycle

The app isn’t simply a place where you look up the result after the event.

It works roughly like this:

Before the vote

You receive information about forthcoming propositions. You can read the explanations and watch explanatory videos. You can also configure notifications for new propositions and videos.

Approaching voting day

The citizen can use the information to understand what is actually being decided. There is also an optional reminder to vote.

On voting Sunday

From 12 noon, VoteInfo begins publishing updated interim results. You can see what is happening in your municipality, canton and Switzerland as a whole.

When counting is complete

The app can send a push notification when the official final results are available.

Afterwards

Previous votes and elections are retained in an archive where available, allowing citizens to look back at earlier decisions.

Why is this especially important?

VoteInfo is part of the infrastructure that makes frequent direct democracy manageable.

Imagine asking citizens to vote four times a year on multiple federal propositions, while simultaneously having cantonal and communal votes. A purely formal system could say:

The citizen has the right to vote; therefore the citizen is informed.

Switzerland goes considerably further.

It has built an information ecosystem around the citizen’s voting responsibility.

The Federal Chancellery produces the traditional Abstimmungsbüchlein—the official voting booklet—which is sent to roughly five million eligible voters. It also produces explanatory videos and makes detailed information available online. VoteInfo brings much of this material together digitally.

So there is a chain: Proposal → explanation → citizen information → deliberation → vote → local results → cantonal results → national result → historical record

The Swiss citizen isn’t simply handed a ballot and told make your choice. The system continually provides mechanisms through which citizens can learn, follow, participate and observe the consequences of collective decisions.

It also illustrates subsidiarity

VoteInfo doesn’t simply present “the Swiss vote.”

It can present: Switzerland → Canton → Commune

That mirrors the political architecture itself.

citizen can therefore be interested in:

• a federal constitutional question;

• a cantonal tax question;

• a communal infrastructure decision;

and the same information environment can accommodate all three levels.

That is an excellent practical illustration of subsidiarity: decisions occur at different levels, and citizens are able to participate at the level at which those decisions are made.

And it isn’t trying to tell citizens what to think

This distinction is important.

VoteInfo’s stated purpose is information, not persuasion. The app is an official channel bringing together information and official results. It doesn’t record your vote and doesn’t determine your choice.

That fits very neatly with the Swiss conception of the citizen as the decision-maker.

The state supplies the information infrastructure.

The citizen supplies the decision.

Swiss direct democracy isn’t just a collection of referendums. It is an entire system designed to make ordinary citizens capable of exercising political responsibility.

There is also a separate Swiss government app called CH info, which is more educational: it explains how Swiss government, parliament, direct democracy, administration and the courts work. So, interestingly, Switzerland has both an app for understanding the political system (CH info) and an app for participating in and following actual votes (VoteInfo).