The Swiss were voting on whether to prohibit practically all tobacco product advertising and, separately, whether to prohibit all animal research.
In-person voting on those and other matters began at 10:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) as part of Switzerland’s direct democracy system, with polls closing two hours later.
Because the majority of people voted by mail, the final results were expected by late afternoon.
According to recent polls, the effort to tighten Switzerland’s notoriously lenient tobacco rules by banning any cigarette advertising wherever children can view it — practically nearly all settings — has the best chance of passing.
Switzerland lags considerably behind most rich countries in terms of cigarette advertising restrictions, a condition that is often blamed on the country’s heavy lobbying by some of the world’s largest tobacco corporations.
Currently, most tobacco advertising is lawful on a nationwide level, with the exception of ads that deliberately target kids on television and radio.
Some Swiss cantons have passed harsher regional regulations, and a new national law is in the works, but campaigners have amassed enough signatures to force a referendum on a much stricter national rule.
