The information and examples given in this Appendix are based on the official guide to voting, Die Politischen Rechte der Schweizerin und des Schweizers (Bundeskanzlei, Bern, 1971). I am grateful to the Federal Chancellor for permission to reproduce the examples.

Every canton and half-canton makes up a constituency for the elections to the Nationalrat. Registered voters have as many members to elect as their canton or half-canton is entitled to in proportion to the population. Some cantons have only one member because of the size of their populations while others may have several. Single-member cantons (Uri, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus and Appenzell I.-R.) elect members by simple majority. In multi-member cantons the election is based on proportional representation based on the procedures described in Chapter 3 (pp. 75—7). After the number of seats to which each party is entitled has been calculated, the members themselves who had the highest number of votes on their party's list are elected.

Each party which wishes to take part in an election submits a list of candidates to each voter, the so-called ‘party list’, which contains a number of candidates not exceeding the number of members for that canton. The electoral authorities also provide voters with a blank list as well, which contains as many spaces as there are members to elect. The voter can use the prepared party list or the blank list. Below are some examples of the possibilities open to a voter in a canton with seven Nationalrat members.