Great Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt

In June 2012, the Great Council of the Canton of Basel-Stadt launched its new voting system and has since been voting electronically – instead of a show of hands or roll call. iart conceived and planned the digital and wireless voting system and realised it in cooperation with tegoro solutions (since 2013 part of iart).

Council members can sign onto a voting device of their choice using their personal membership card and electronically cast their vote. This is made possible by 155 modified Android tablets with touchscreen (4.8"), which are installed onto the desks of the Council members and the standing places, as well as four mobile devices for wheelchair users. They display the question to be voted on and lead through the voting mode. In addition, Council members can use the tablets to request time to speak electronically.

The President of the Great Council and the Council secretaries lead and manage the meeting using larger Android tablets with touchscreen (10"). They add the forthcoming government business to the content management system in advance and are able make edits as the debate progresses. Because the senior civil servants and the President of the Council sit with their backs toward the big screen, they can follow the presentations via live stream on their tablets.

A large display in the Council hall as well as several monitors on the stand and in the antechamber display the results in real time. Subsequent to the vote, the system automatically generates an export of the results to the website of the Great Council and makes them available to the public.

To ensure that the historic Council hall had to undergo only minor construction work, iart developed a wireless voting system. All data from the voting devices is transferred by WLAN.