Swiss Journalist Accused of Voter Fraud for Experiment

A Swiss journalist Joel Boissard was accused of a voter fraud after a successful experiment demonstrating the possibility of rigging the election, according to Swiss media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Boissard, an employee of the RTS broadcaster, voted twice in the federal election as after moving house he received the notification about the vote twice, one as a Swiss citizen residing abroad and a second one as a Swiss residing in Switzerland, Le Matin newspaper reported Sunday.

Boissard then reportedly proceeded to vote twice on the Internet at the March 8 election to test the system, certain that the algorithm would not allow him to cast the ballot twice, but was surprised to find that the fraud was possible.

The journalist immediately reached out to the authorities, appraised them of the situation and posed a few questions on the system malfunction.

Boissard found out a few weeks later that he was being investigated for voter fraud, and in November, the state attorney Marco Renna pronounced him guilty and sentensed him to a fine, according to the newspaper.

Boissard and RTS are going to appeal the state attorney's decision at Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland.