The Swiss launched their system in 2004 through a close public-private partnership. On Tuesday, April 24th, an official delegation from Switzerland will be flying into Los Angeles to participate in an event with The Hollywood Hill to discuss Switzerland's experiences with Internet Voting and how these technologies are evolving.
The Swiss delegation is traveling to the U.S. within the scope of ThinkSwiss - Brainstorm the future, a US wide program on Education, Research and Innovation, that focuses on the exchange of expertise and know-how in academia and the business community in Switzerland and the US. 
The presentation will include a live demonstration of the technology with laptops and specialists demonstrating what hackers encounter when they attempt to hack the system.
Participants will include Valerie Christinet (IT Analyst, Canton of Neuchatel) and Michel Chevallier (Head of Communications, Internet Voting Project, Canton of Geneva). Professor Dr. Alexander Trechsel, a leading expert in the topic will also comment on his work with the Republic of Estonia (where Skype was originally developed) that is now working on building a similar system and we'll be exploring their efforts as well.
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Michel ChevallierHead of Cabinet for the Chancellor of the State of Geneva Michel Chevallier is the Head of Cabinet to the Geneva State Chancellor. He is in charge of the Chancellery's special projects. In this framework, he is in charge of the Internet Voting Project public and political communication etc...He is also in charge of the Internet Voting Project public and political communication and sits in the Swiss delegation to the Council of Europe working group on electronic voting. Mr. Chevallier previously worked as a journalist and communications consultant to organizations such as UNICEF and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Switzerland. He holds a Master’s degree in Experimental and Medical Psychology from the University of Geneva. |
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Valerie ChristinetIT Analyst, Canton of Neuchatel Born in 1966, she graduated from the University of Neuchatel with a diploma in IT management currently works as an analyst at the IT department of the Canton of Neuchatel. |
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Professor Dr. Alexander H. TrechselProfessor of Political Science, University of Geneva Alexander H. Trechsel is Professor of political science and the first holder of the Swiss chair in Federalist Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He was Vice-Director of the Research and Documentation Centre on Direct Democracy (c2d) at the University of Geneva. He is also currently directing the e-Democracy Centre (e-DC) at the University of Geneva, a joint initiative with the European University Institute and the Oxford Internet Institute. He earned his PhD in political science at the University of Geneva. His research interests include e-democracy, direct democracy, federalism, European integration and political behavior. His most recent writings include, together with Hanspeter Kriesi, a textbook on the Politics of Switzerland (Cambridge University Press). His newest book, co-edited with Fernando Mendez is called “The European Union and E-voting. Addressing the European Parliament's internet voting challenge" (Routledge). |