In my contribution to this conference, I will start by presenting empirical evidence on the impact of VAAs on electoral behaviour. Then we will turn our attention to the Swiss case. Since the impact on participation is likely to depend on the electoral system, I will first present the Swiss voting systems and the functioning of the Swiss VAA called smartvote. Then I will answer the question whether this tool had an influence on turnout in the course of the last elections in 2011 and worked in favor of specific parties.
This will lead us to more general reflections. The question about the impact of VAAs on voting behavior will become particularly salient with the introduction of e-voting. Especially in systems like Switzerland, where many voters not simply send in a party list, but have the possibility to customize their own list, electronic devices to simplify these tasks by providing the information needed are very useful. Once you are able to copy-paste your choice of candidates – this can be up to 34 names like for example in the canton of Zurich – into the official ballot paper or to send it in directly via a remote internet-voting tools, the majority of the citizens will vote this way very much like they book their holidays nowadays. This of course will have an impact on electoral campaigns and on political parties for one, and for the other it will offer a completely new set of opportunities for electoral studies.
The empirical evidence presented in this paper stems from a research project conducted within the framework of the National Center of Competence in Research with the name “Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century” (NCCR Democracy) and focuses primarily on the 2007 national elections.
