Cash Vote Is Two Texts and a Deciding Question

ZURICH - The cash items on Sunday are connected. The popular initiative titled Cash is freedom would oblige the Swiss National Bank to supply coins and notes and restrict the state's ability to push daily life onto cards. The federal decree on Swiss currency and cash supply, the counter-proposal, writes a duty to ensure cash into the constitution with more room for the SNB and parliament.

If both win a popular and cantonal majority, a deciding question asks which text should stand. Polls have shown the counter-proposal well ahead and the initiative closer to the line. City bakeries already prefer cards. Village kiosks still count notes at closing.

A habit seeking a clause

The political heat is less about today's tills than about a future in which cash desks close. Our result night coverage is in the Sunday report.