Website, Local government, digital participation
Voting on projects for Riga's neighbourhoods
balso.riga.lv was the site where Riga residents aged 16 and over voted on participatory budget projects. Voters signed in through latvija.lv, and everyone could vote once. CreateIT took the site over in July 2023, optimised it and load-tested it before each voting period, and in 2026 moved the projects to apkaimes.lv.
- Client
- Riga City Council
- Sector
- Local governmentdigital participation
- Period
- 2023-2026
- Services
- Website takeoverPerformance optimisationLoad testingAccessibilityData migrationMaintenance
- Platform
- DrupalPHP
01, Chapter
The brief
A voting site has a very uneven load. Most visits are concentrated in the voting period, especially at its start and just before it closes, and that is exactly when the site cannot fail. We took the site over after a tender in the summer of 2023, and by that autumn it was already running a voting period.
02, Chapter
The solution
A month before each voting period we load-tested the site with tests that simulate a rush of voters, and removed the bottlenecks we found. That way we knew before voting opened that the system would handle the peaks.
In 2023 we improved the site's performance, added an automatic confirmation after voting and linked the project counts in the list, on the home page and on the map, so the same figures show everywhere.
In 2024 we brought the site in line with accessibility requirements and the Riga brand guidelines, and redesigned the search, the filtered project list, the map and the project timeline. During voting periods we monitored the site and were ready to react immediately.
03, Video
The project list
04, Chapter
The move to apkaimes.lv
In 2026 we used migration scripts to move the participatory budget projects, with their progress logs, images and attachments, from Drupal to apkaimes.lv, where they sit alongside the rest of the neighbourhood information. The balso.riga.lv address now leads to apkaimes.lv.
05, Chapter
The result
- Uninterrupted operation during the 2023 and 2024 voting periods.
- Load tests a month before each vote, and a faster site.
- Consistent project data in the list, on the home page and on the map.
- Accessibility and the Riga brand guidelines for the 2024 vote.
- The project archive preserved and moved to apkaimes.lv.
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