The recent SMS pilot test in Bulach, Switzerland, has been called a “success” in at least one recent media report of the project. The story doesn’t provide much data to back this claim up, other than providing some participation statistics by voting method, noting that 11.6% of citizens used the SMS system to cast a ballot in the trial, 25.7% voted over the Internet, and the remainder (62.7%) voted either in person of by mail. The only major problems reported during the trial were difficulties with the use of PIN numbers, which apparently were sent to voters in the mail.

There is another piece out that gives some additional details of the features of the SMS voting system, noting that the system used in this test required the use of not only a user id and a PIN, but also that the user provide his or her birthdate. Note also that this story says that “Unisys supplied the programming to set up the SMS voting platform.”

There is some additional information that I have found put out by the Swiss government on the e-voting initiative, though what I’ve been able to find is in German, French and Italian. If any readers know of material like this in English, I’d appreciate the reference.