Barcelona City Council organizes Telematic Councils
Barcelona City Council bets on telematic voting
This is the case, among others, of the Barcelona City Council. Fifteen entities dependent on the City Council, including important institutions such as the Municipal Institute of Social Services, the Municipal Institute of Education of Barcelona or the Barcelona Culture Foundation were supposed to hold their Governing Councils in April. But in March a State of Alarm was decreed. And, with the members of the Councils confined to their homes, it was impossible to hold these events in person.
The IT Director of the City Council, Nacho Santillana, knew that there was the possibility of offering these entities the possibility of voting telematically. But how to launch such a service with all the guarantees in less than two weeks? That's when he contacted us.
Standard voting software and customized developments
Although Kuorum has been helping public and private clients to hold telematic meetings and assemblies with reliable electronic voting for seven years, this time we were faced with the challenge of assigning multiple voting rights - as some of the voters were members of several Boards. In a few days we developed the necessary improvements to launch this new functionality into production. And within a week we had the Barcelona City Council voting platform ready to host all councils and, on occasion, previous commissions.
Some entities chose to combine telematic voting with a videoconference session in which they presented the results of the exercise. Others sent the information to voters by e-mail a few days before the vote - information that was also accessible from the platform. All, thanks to the platform's contact manager that allows mass mailings to segmented audiences.
Secure identification and reliable voting process
The voting process verifies the identity of users through a two- or three-factor authentication process (personal password, SMS verification code and/or biometric signature). The client opted for a two-factor process, which offers security similar to that required for most online banking transactions. And voters who had questions during the voting process were able to contact our call center directly to resolve them.
Only a few minutes after each vote, the Kuorum team sent the client the corresponding reports, including a voting log file. In addition to making it possible to hold these meetings, which would not have been possible to organize otherwise, the Barcelona City Council was able to save on travel, room reservations and CO2 emissions.
In the following video, our client Nacho Santillana explains his experience with the service. If you have any doubts about electronic voting, contact us and we will guide you without obligation.
"It's a very convenient process and we now use it frequently to make decisions."
At Kuorum we help people around the world make collective decisions that matter. Tell us your goals and we'll tell you how we can help.
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