Voting in Switzerland

Yes the photo is out of focus.

What is it?

My voting package which I have spent several hours reading and studying. Either they are writing the contents more simply or my understanding of French is improving but it still took a good part of the afternoon.

This is NOT a complaint. I was given Swiss citizenship and I take the right to vote very seriously. That means studying up on the issues. And I was automatically registered as voter the day I took my citizenship oath. A ballot for the next votation was in with my other documentation.

Some of the things we are voting on this time are simplified and combined:

• A minimum income for everyone
• Looking at financing of public services
• Examination of embryos for genetic defects under special circumstances. I need much more study on this to make sure I understand what I think I understood
• Use of gas taxes
• Renters rights after five years in case of the owner wanting to sell the flat
• Changes in the asylum laws

Two booklets are provided one for the Federal and one for the Canton issues

• A summary
• The point of view of the group offering the law
• The government's point of view
• A list of the 23 parties point of view (there are only about five major ones)
• What each of the parties wants (scary when the far right and far left agree)
• What other interested groups want

The envelope please with:

• The envelope that the material comes in can also be used to mail back my vote
• There is an envelope for the ballot
• There is an identification card.

I can either mail my ballot or vote in person on the morning of June 5. There is internet voting allowed in some places.

I have not finished studying the issues.

I still need to look at the different party posters placed all over the country. I will check them out tomorrow.

I need to read various points of view in the Tribune de Genève. Sometimes if I vote too early, I later read or hear additional information that would have changed my vote. There for it is a balancing act between making sure I vote by mail early enough but not too early.

When I vote I hope I will have my point of view in focus.