The Grand Council of Ticino: History of Its Composition, Representation, and One-Person, One-Vote System

One in four voters, four seats out of ninety The Ticino Grand Council and the Weight of the Vote per Person Summary of the study “The Ticino Grand Council: History of Composition, Representation, and the Weight of the Vote per Person” (Ticinus — Centro Studi, 2026). Data and analyses are documented in the full study, along with the relevant sources. In summary • The Grand Council has had 90 seats since 1971: 3,998 residents per seat, a narrower representation than that of the major European states but less than that of 19 out of 26 cantons. • In 2023, 22.8% of ballots (27,573) were not headed by any list, more than those of any single party; however, these ballots accounted for only 4.7% of the votes that determine seats: approximately 4 seats instead of the roughly 20 potential seats. • The cause is a calculation rule, not a mistake by voters: a ballot with a designated list always counts as 180 votes, while an unmarked ballot counts as 2 votes per preference, and on average, 15 preferences are expressed out of a possible 90. • Over the past fifty years, the share of ballots cast for established parties has fallen from 87% to 43%, voter turnout has dropped from over 70% to 56%, and lists with fewer than five elected representatives have secured 13 seats. • Possible corrective measures have been known and discussed since 2018. The next cantonal elections are scheduled for April 2027: the 2027–2031 legislative term is the appropriate period to evaluate them. Why This Study Across Europe, voter turnout and ties to political parties are weakening. Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking canton, is a unique case study: it was the first canton to introduce proportional representation in 1891, and today it is the only one that also elects its government using proportional representation; it elects its parliament in a single district with 90 seats and allows voters to cast ballots for individual candidates without choosing a party. The study examines how much weight this personal choice actually carries and what fifty years of official data reveal. The crux of the matter: how much weight does a personal choice carry? Each ballot for the Grand Council is worth 180 votes—twice the number of seats. If the voter designates a list as the recipient, the 180 votes remain with that list even if no preferences are specified. If the voter does not assign the ballot to a list, only the expressed preferences count—two votes each—and the unexpressed votes are lost. What the Voter Does Votes Allocated to Lists (out of 180) Assigns the ballot to a list, even without preferences 180 Gives a preference to a candidate from another list (panachage), shifting 1 vote Does not designate a list and selects 1 candidate 2 Does not designate a list and selects 15 candidates (2023 average) 30 Does not designate a list and selects 90 candidates 180 (Calculations by Ticinus based on Articles 27 and 39 of the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights (LEDP)) In 2023, unmarked ballots expressed an average of about 15 preferences out of 90: they thus accounted for one-sixth of a marked ballot and, overall, about 4 seats instead of the approximately 20 they would have accounted for if filled out in full. The double-value mechanism had been introduced precisely to give these ballots the same potential weight; in 2018, an alternative proposal that set the value of a ballot equal to the number of seats was discussed and rejected. Two common objections do not hold up to scrutiny. Reducing the number of deputies would not correct the imbalance and would act as an indirect threshold, raising the quota from 1.1 to 1.7 percent with 60 seats. Adopting the National Council’s rules would not give more weight to blank ballots: in both systems, a preference is worth one-seat-th of a full ballot, and the perceived difference stems solely from the number of seats—8 versus 90. Fifty Years of Transformation With the introduction of women’s suffrage, party membership rose from 59,200 in 1967 to 137,288 in 1971; today it stands at 224,109. Voter turnout, which remained stable at around 72 percent until 1995, fell to 56.0 percent in 2023. The PLR and PPD/Center saw their share of seats drop from 73 to 41 percent; together with the Socialist bloc, the established parties accounted for 87 percent of the votes in 1971 and 43 percent in 2023. This space was first filled by the Lega dei Ticinesi, starting in 1991, and then by blank ballots, starting in 2007, while lists with fewer than five elected representatives—below the threshold for forming a parliamentary group—accounted for 13 seats. The established parties retain more seats than ballots because seats are allocated based on votes, which also include preferences received from blank ballots and vote splitting. The Options on the Table The study does not propose a partisan solution but describes the options along with their effects: • a ballot value equal to the number of seats, which would double the weight of preferences given to other lists; • replacing the invalidation of ballots with too many preferences (110 in 2023) with a reduction of excess votes, through a verifiable random draw or proportional reduction; • an official and uniform profile of candidates and the consultation of named votes, which the Grand Council already records; • artificial intelligence tools such as position maps, useful only with verifiable sources, a right of reply, a public methodology, and neutral management; • reasoned responses to petitions and initiatives, and party “outreach” efforts directed even at non-voters. Beyond Ticino In 2025, protests were recorded in over seventy countries, and the 2026 V-Dem report indicates a decline in democratic quality even in established democracies. In Switzerland, direct democracy offers a channel for discontent through institutional means, from petitions to popular votes; in Ticino, the most evident sign is not street protests, but a silent disengagement, characterized by abstention and non-partisan ballots. Edgar Morin viewed crisis not as an accident but as the very nature of societies, to be understood through the currents of the present: it is in this spirit that this study provides data and options for a debate open to all political perspectives. Niccolò Salvioni, attorney and notary, political and institutional analyst, Ticinus — Centro Studi, Locarno

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