How COIB, a professional body of nurses, ran its 2025 Annual General Meeting vote online securely and with instant results

Professional associations often face the same structural problem: their members are spread across cities, regions, or even entire countries. That geographic dispersion makes governance more complex, more expensive, and less accessible.

The Col·legi Oficial d'Infermeres i Infermers de Barcelona (COIB) faced this exact challenge when preparing its 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM). The organization needed a voting system that was secure, easy to use, and accessible to every member, whether attending in person or remotely.

On March 17, 2025, COIB ran its Annual General Meeting vote with Vocdoni. Members could attend in person or remotely, but the entire voting process was online voting, with an instant tally at close.

Key facts

• Organization: Col·legi Oficial d'Infermeres i Infermers de Barcelona
• Vote type: Annual General Meeting
• Date: March 17, 2025
• Voting method: Single choice voting with secure 2FA authentication
• Attendance format: Hybrid (in-person + remote participation)
• Results: Instant tally at poll close

The challenge: making governance accessible without lowering standards

COIB represents nursing professionals across a wide geographic area. Traditional in-person voting can limit participation due to travel time, work schedules, and associated costs. For many members, attending an AGM can mean spending up to €50 in travel expenses alone. For a professional body, these barriers directly impact inclusivity and engagement.

At the same time, any AGM vote carries legal, financial, and institutional weight. The organization needed to guarantee:

• Secure voter authentication
• A verifiable voting process
• Clear and immediate results
• Real-time support for members

The solution had to remove logistical friction without introducing technical complexity.

The solution: a guided, secure digital voting experience

COIB implemented a single, unified online voting environment for all participants, regardless of whether they attended physically or remotely.

Secure authentication with minimal friction

Members accessed the platform using their member number and their email address or phone number. A two-factor authentication (2FA) code added an extra layer of security, ensuring that only eligible members could cast a vote.

All voting resources in one place

The voting platform consolidated all AGM resources into a single environment:

• Voting agenda and proposals
• Supporting documentation
• Live streaming (for remote voters)
• Real-time assistance via chat

Members did not need to switch between systems or platforms. From login to vote submission, the experience remained consistent and guided.

What members experienced on voting day

On March 17, members followed a clear and simple process:

1. Log in with member credentials
2. Verify identity using 2FA
3. Review agenda and materials
4. Cast their vote
5. Receive confirmation

Support was available throughout the process via live chat, ensuring that technical questions or doubts could be resolved immediately.

Operational impact for the organization

Running an AGM involves coordination across registration, verification, logistics, and reporting. By moving to an online voting model, COIB streamlined several operational layers:

• Reduced physical infrastructure requirements
• Eliminated manual vote counting
• Simplified coordination for hybrid attendance
• Delivered immediate results at close

Why this matters for professional associations

For many professional bodies, in-person voting creates structural participation barriers. Travel costs, scheduling constraints, and geographic distance can discourage engagement.

A secure online voting system removes those obstacles while preserving the formal guarantees required for high-stakes institutional decisions.

COIB’s 2025 AGM demonstrates that hybrid attendance and fully digital voting can coexist without compromising security, transparency, or member trust.

Why COIB trusted Vocdoni

AGM votes often involve budget approvals, policy decisions, and governance changes. These are not informal polls, they require reliability, legal compliance and auditability.

Vocdoni provided COIB with a secure, verifiable voting system designed for institutional use. The result was a structured, supported, and trustworthy digital voting process that members could complete from anywhere.