National Council elections: Correction of published national vote shares 2023
Bern, 25.10.2023 - Following the federal elections, while conducting quality controls of its election statistics, the FSO discovered an error in the calculation of the aggregated party vote shares at national level. The correction to the party vote shares has no effect on the cantonal election results; the distribution of seats and the elected National Councillors are not affected by this. Informed immediately of the error, Alain Berset, Head of the Department of Home Affairs, has ordered a review of the processes.
As part of its standard practice, the FSO verifies the published data and statistics in detail. On Tuesday afternoon these checks revealed that the calculation of the party vote shares at national level contained an error and that the published figures would have to be corrected. The correction did not affect cantonal and communal election results nor the distribution of seats (mandates) and the elected persons, which are supplied by the cantons.
Results of three cantons counted several times
The error in the calculation of the party vote shares at national level was due to faulty programming of the data import programme for the three cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Glarus. These cantons, which have only one National Council seat, deliver their data in a different format to the other cantons. The calculation error occurred while the data supplied correctly by these three cantons were being processed.
The faulty programme caused a multiple count (three to five times) of the votes cast in the three cantons for the parties standing there. As a result, too many votes were attributed to these parties, which meant that the SVP, the Centre and the FDP were given too large a share of the vote. The calculation of the vote share at national level using the correct figures shows a drop in the vote share of these parties and a corresponding shift in that of the other parties (see table).
Measures taken
Once the error was confirmed, the FSO informed the Department immediately. The Head of the Department, Alain Berset, has ordered an administrative investigation to analyse and improve the processes together with the FSO. The FSO regrets this mistake and is taking the matter very seriously. The now corrected party vote shares have been recalculated and checked several times. In future, processes in this sensitive area will be adapted. This includes a more widescale automated plausibility check of the calculations and the deployment of more staff to conduct controls on election day as well as a complete review of the overall processes and control modalities.
National Council elections: transfer of cantonal data to the Confederation
The FSO is responsible for compiling election statistics for federal elections. This includes continuously collecting, processing and publishing results on election day. Once the votes of all cantons have been counted, the cantonal results are aggregated and the vote shares at national level are published as statistics. The statistical calculations are largely automated.
At federal level, the National Elections are organised by the Federal Chancellery in accordance with the regulations in the Federal Act on Political Rights. For their part, the cantons organise the elections in their territory and are responsible for ensuring that they are conducted correctly and in accordance with the law. They are also responsible for calculating the cantonal results. They distribute the seats among the parties' electoral lists and determine who is elected. The results determined in this manner are still provisional and are published by the cantons on their websites and in the official cantonal gazette. On election day, the cantons also transfer the provisional results to the Confederation (FSO) for information and statistical purposes. Once the period of appeal has expired in the cantons, the final results are sent to the Federal Chancellery, which established the Federal Council's election report. This is presented at the constituent session of the newly elected Parliament.
Address for enquiries
The Director of the FSO, Georges-Simon Ulrich, will be present at 13:15 in the Media Centre (small conference room) to answer questions.
Urs Frei, Head of Communication, Federal Statistical Office, tel: +41 58 468 65 46
Gianna Blum, Co-Head of Communication FDHA, +41 58 46 50951
Documents
Publisher
General Secretariat FDHA
http://www.edi.admin.ch
