How and when people vote

At federal level there are normally four voting dates per year. These dates are reserved many years in advance. If you add the canton and the municipality, people vote about four to five times a year. On one date people often vote on several proposals at the same time. Cantons and municipalities usually put their own votes on the same days.

Popular votes and elections always take place on a Sunday. On that day the polling station, the ballot box, is open in the morning. By Sunday evening the results are already known. The elections to the National Council take place every four years in October, also on a Sunday.

But most voters do not go to the ballot box at all. They vote by post. About three to four weeks before the date, the documents arrive at home. You fill in the ballot paper and send it back or put it in the municipality's letterbox. E-voting exists only as a trial in a few cantons. You cannot vote by telephone.

Memory aid: Four times a year, always on a Sunday, mostly by post.