Result of Swiss Asylum Vote Hangs in Balance (Recount of Weighed Votes)

Reuters ^ | November 27, 2002

[Shermy]

ZURICH (Reuters) - The very close result of a Swiss referendum on asylum hung in the balance Wednesday as some local authorities began a recount after officials were found to have weighed voter slips instead of counting them.

Keen to retain faith in a system which forms the backbone of Swiss democracy, the Alpine nation's federal chancellery has asked all cantons which used electronic weighing-scales without a permit to manually check their ballot papers.

The local government of Berne said Wednesday it had begun recounting results from the city, while more recounts were expected to begin in the coming days. Of Switzerland's 26 cantons only Geneva holds a permit to use electronic counting aids (news - web sites).

While officials said they did not expect a recount to uncover any major inaccuracies, a shadow of doubt has been cast over the referendum result which saw tough asylum rules dismissed by a wafer-thin majority out of more than two million votes Sunday.

"The close result led to discussions about all possible irregularities in the processing of referendum results," the Bernese government said in a statement Wednesday. "The cause was the town of Berne which used scales to process the results."

Swiss voters rejected proposals to give the traditionally hospitable country the toughest political asylum rules in the industrialized world.

The 3,422-vote majority was the smallest margin ever to decide on a popular initiative since the referendum system was introduced over 100 years ago.

"The electorate's trust in the referendum process is the basis of our democratic system and therefore we want to make sure that the referendum process is secure and transparent," Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Holz told Swiss television.

[Shermy]

"Weighed votes"

If I ever hear a Swiss complain about Florida...

[ambrose]

holy crap... you mean they put the yes ballots on one scale, and the no ballots on another? And that's how they decided the results? Hahaha...

[Van Jenerette]

..for political science class

[Shermy]

ping.

[sarasmom]

Bookmarked.

This I have to hear more of, as a proud Floriduh voter.LOL

Jeb better hear of this before the south counties try to use this method in 2004!

[chance33_98]

Swiss keep a watchful eye on Florida ballot - send election monitors to Florida

[Int]

I think it's a disgrace that some of the cantons were using these methods when they shouldn't have. But at the same time I think the "scales" are rather accurate. From what I know these scales are basically adapted ones that were made for banks to count the the number of banknotes in a pile - and you'd expect therefore they were fairly good...

It will be interesting to see the results. I hope they aren't too out of whack with the current ones. (Swiss referenda votes are marked by writing the words 'yes' or 'no' in a square on the ballot - no popping out any pieces of paper ;)

[floriduh voter]

Thanks for the ping. Weighing votes wouldn't work in south Florida where they try to discern the intent of the awful voters. All the bad votes would tip the scale and have to be thrown out and then we'd hear "Weigh every vote instead of count every vote".

By the way, I think Bill McBride is going to run for Tampa Mayor. I am the first to opine in this regard. Remember you heard it first from FV. LOL

[sarasmom]

And I cant vote against him, since I live in Odessa! Sigh...