The Fourth International Conference on Electronic Voting took place in Bregenz, Austria from July 21-24. The conference, which takes place every two years, brings together experts on electronic voting from the fields of political science, computer science, election administration, voting rights and technology suppliers to discuss current issues and recent experiences related to electronic voting and counting. Vladimir Pran, IFES chief of party in the West Bank, and Ben Goldsmith, IFES chief of party in Pakistan, both attended the event co-organized by the Council of Europe.

Nearly twenty papers were presented and discussed at the conference, covering some critical challenges facing electronic voting at the moment, as well as recent experiences of electronic voting and counting. Some of the key issues explored were the trust of voters in e-enabled elections, the certification of electronic voting and counting systems, and the verifiability of results under e-enabled elections. The idea of verifiability as potential answer to the lack of observability was debated by the presenters.

More than 50 participants attended the event, including the keynote speaker, Donetta Davidson, Chair of the United States Election Assistance Commission.