Prosecutors probe allegations of fake voter rolls in Switzerland’s vaunted direct democracy

Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — Swiss federal prosecutors say they have ordered house searches and interrogations as part of an investigation into possible electoral fraud after an advocacy group unearthed thousands of fake signatures in voter rolls. The allegation that malfeasance that could have skewed results in Swiss elections has jolted Switzerland’s vaunted system of direct democracy. Mail-in balloting is the main way that voters cast ballots. An advocacy group checked about 10,000 signatures on voter rolls and discovered that nearly a third appeared fake, involving bogus addresses, falsified birth dates and repeated signatures.