Last week, the families of students at Cervelló Institute were able to cast their vote online for the first time during the School Council Elections. The introduction of online voting helped boost participation with a 323% turnout increase compared to the previous 2016 election when paper voting was the only available voting channel.
This election was part of an online voting pilot experience led by the Department of Education of the Government of Catalonia among secondary schools in Catalonia, with the aim of encouraging participation and reverse historically low participation rates. The online voting solution, provided by Scytl’s spin-off Civiciti, was offered as the main voting channel that allowed voters to easily cast their vote remotely from their desired location using any mobile device or computer of their choice. Voters could also vote using traditional paper voting as a complementary voting channel.
With over 90% of the voters choosing the online voting channel, and having successfully experienced the convenience, flexibility and accessibility of the online voting channel, the Department of Education of the Government of Catalunya plans to extend this complementary voting channel in the upcoming School Council Elections scheduled in 2020 to all public centers and private centers supported by public funds.
