Every administration knows this frustration. A decision has to be made — a one-way street downtown, the use of a green space, the date of the town festival — and there is no honest way to know what the city actually thinks. A Facebook poll is seen only by those who already follow the page; it is public and easy to game. The town hall meeting rewards whoever speaks loudest. The referendum is an expensive machine you switch on once every several years. In between sits the silent majority: the people who don't comment, don't protest, don't show up in the room — and who are, nonetheless, the city.
MINOMO's Public Consultation exists to fill exactly this gap. And it does so by resolving a contradiction that looked impossible to settle.
In one sentence
The Public Consultation is a tool the mayor uses to put a closed question to citizens — two to five answers — addressed to one or more cities under their jurisdiction, within a time window of 24 to 168 hours. Residents get a notification, answer with a single tap, and the numbers appear only at closing. It isn't binding: it's structured listening.
The paradox at the core: anonymous and verifiable at once
Usually you can have one or the other, not both. A vote at the ballot box is anonymous, but you have to trust the count. An open online poll is somewhat checkable, but everyone sees who you are and what you chose. The Public Consultation holds both together, and the way it does it is simple to tell.
On one side, a registry records only who took part: it enforces the "one person, one vote" rule and blocks duplicates. On the other, entirely separate, sits the choice: which option was marked. The two never touch and share no link whatsoever. Next to the choice there is no name, no device, no address.
At closing the decisive thing happens: the raw rows are deleted. Two things remain — the aggregate numbers and a signed certificate, deposited on a public, independent registry. From that moment it is technically impossible to trace how any individual citizen voted, and it is possible for anyone to verify that the count was not touched after closing.
We don't ask you to trust the count. We give you the tools to check it.
Three ways to ask the city. Only one keeps them all together.
| Public Consultation | Facebook poll | Referendum | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymity | By design | None: public profile | Yes, at the booth |
| Verifiability | Public certificate | None | Official record |
| Cost to the municipality | No licence fee | "Free", but gameable | High |
| Binding | No: it's listening | No | Yes |
| Who it reaches | Residents, in one tap | Only the page's followers | All eligible voters |
| Results while open | Hidden until closing | Visible (bandwagon effect) | Hidden until the count |
Why the results stay in the dark until the end
While the consultation is open, no one — not even the municipality — sees the running tally. This is deliberate. Partial results trigger the bandwagon effect: people tend to side with whoever is winning, and the picture warps. Keeping the numbers dark until closing protects the honesty of the answer. It also protects anonymity, because a partial figure computed on a handful of votes, in a small neighbourhood, could become an identifying clue. The numbers all light up together at the end, accompanied by the certificate.
Listening, not a referendum
Let's be clear: the Public Consultation does not replace elections and does not bind the administration. Residence is self-declared, the outcome is a compass, not a verdict. The municipality authors the question and is accountable for it; MINOMO provides the channel and stays out of what is being asked.
Yet it shifts one thing, and it matters: the decision-maker. Statistics, communications and weather alerts speak to the councillor's desk. A direct question to citizens, with a real answer in a few days, speaks to the mayor's desk. It is the tool that turns MINOMO from a showcase of the city into everyday participatory-democracy infrastructure — not the exceptional event held once a term, but a muscle you can train.
But doesn't "anonymous" mean "easy to manipulate"?
It's the right objection, and it deserves an honest answer. Doesn't a vote no one can trace back to a person risk being inflated by bots, or cast twenty times by the same hand?
The answer lies in a few precise design choices. You can only vote from a verified account with a minimum age — a barrier against accounts created for the purpose. Figures broken down by area are shown only above a minimum response threshold (k-anonymity), so no group small enough to be identifiable ends up under the magnifying glass. The methodology describing all of this is public, and an annual third-party review of real anonymity is part of the design. The boundary, stated plainly, is that this is listening, not a binding decision: it's there to hear the city, not to replace the ballot box.
The city that listens
Representative democracy does not ask you to shrink a complex choice into a tap. It asks you to stop deciding blind, imagining a consensus no one ever measured. For the first time an administration can put a question to its own territory and get an answer that is at once private for whoever gives it and transparent for everyone else. Not one more megaphone aimed at citizens, but an ear. That is how a city stops being administered and starts being listened to.
The Public Consultation is one of the civic features described on the MINOMO for Municipalities page; the full anonymity methodology is available in MINOMO's public methodology.
Frequently asked questions
Do citizens really vote anonymously?
Yes, by technical design and not as a promise. Who took part and which option was chosen are recorded in two separate places that never touch: no name, no device, no address sits next to the choice. At closing the raw rows are deleted and only the aggregate counts and a public certificate remain.
Is the Public Consultation binding on the municipality?
No. It is a tool for structured listening, not a referendum: residence is self-declared and the outcome does not bind the administration. It helps the mayor decide with real data, but the decision and the responsibility remain theirs.
How much does it cost the municipality?
MINOMO does not sell licences to public administrations: there are no activation, subscription or maintenance fees. The Public Consultation is part of the platform's civic toolkit. The value a municipality brings is civic, not commercial.
How is the result of a consultation verified?
Every closed consultation generates a signed certificate summarising the counts, deposited on a public, independent registry. Anyone can compare the published numbers with the certificate and confirm that the result was not altered after closing.