Elections will come to their voters

The subjects of the Russian Federation, where direct elections of governors will be held in September, are working on the issue of creating extraterritorial polling stations where their residents located in the zone of the special military operation (SVO) will be able to vote. The electoral commissions received such an opportunity thanks to recent amendments to the electoral legislation. The procedure for the formation of such sites should be determined by the Central Election Commission, but some subjects are already expressing their readiness to do this: as Kommersant found out, there is definitely such an intention in the Omsk, Novosibirsk and Voronezh regions, Primorye and Yakutia. Moscow and the Moscow region, where online voting will be used, do not need to create “exit” polling stations.

The norm allowing regional election commissions to create extraterritorial (that is, outside the boundaries of their constituencies) polling stations appeared in the electoral legislation in May 2023. The Central Election Commission (CEC) will establish the specifics of the formation of such polling stations and the conduct of voting there. The Omsk region was the first to announce its intention to test the electoral novel: the head of the regional electoral committee, Ivan Khodakov, told reporters that electoral committees are being organized for Omsk military personnel in the NVO zone, although the mechanism for their creation is still unclear. In the Omsk region in September, 20 election campaigns are planned, including the election of the governor.

In total, this year direct elections of heads are planned in 21 regions. In addition to Omsk, these are Amur, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kemerovo, Magadan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pskov, Oryol, Samara, Smolensk and Tyumen regions. Also, leaders will be elected in Yakutia and Khakassia, the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Altai, Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky Territories, and mayoral elections will be held in Moscow. The creation of extraterritorial sites for residents of the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation (elections to legislative assemblies will be held there in the fall) was announced last week by the deputy chairman of the CEC, Nikolai Bulaev, whose statement was published on the commission’s website. According to him, the electoral commissions of the new territories plan to create 328 such polling stations in 81 regions of Russia, where residents of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions who are outside them will be able to vote.

Of the regions where direct elections of heads are planned, the intention to organize extraterritorial sites for the military in the NVO zone was expressed in the Novosibirsk region, Primorye and Yakutia. “During last year’s large-scale municipal elections in Yakutia, there were proposals from residents and participants in the special operation about the possibility of taking part in the electoral process. But then we didn’t have a legislative base,” Yevgeny Fedorov, chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Yakutia, told Kommersant. “Now we, like many subjects of our country, will try to reach our voters who are in the NVO zone as much as possible and organize their participation in voting.” In Khakassia, Amur, Magadan and Tyumen regions, the issue of organizing “exit” sites in the NWO zone is under consideration, no fundamental decisions have yet been made. “There is still no order that would regulate elections in the NVO zone. As soon as the Central Election Commission approves such a procedure, then the election committee of the Amur Region will make a decision on voting in the NVO zone, ”the Amur regional election committee explained to Kommersant.

Ilya Ivanov, chairman of the Voronezh Regional Electoral Committee, told Kommersant that the commission is considering the possibility of organizing extraterritorial PECs “for Voronezh residents, who will have an additional opportunity to take part in the election of the region’s governor,” without specifying whether they are talking about polling stations in the special operation zone. Kommersant’s interlocutors in the Voronezh government say that voting stations will be created in the NVO zone for the military from the region, but the election commission emphasizes that it is too early to talk about the completion of the project.

They will definitely not use the novel with sites outside the Chukotka and Moscow regions. The capital’s electoral committee explained this decision by the presence of remote electronic voting (DEG). A Kommersant source in the election committee of the Moscow Region said that he was not aware of the intention to organize extraterritorial polling stations, but, in his opinion, given the use of the DEG in the election of the head of the Moscow Region, such polling stations are not needed. In the remaining regions, where direct elections of governors are planned, Kommersant either did not answer, or stated that they did not have information about the creation of extraterritorial sites.

Recall that this year, during a single voting day, the DEG will be used by 25 regions (including Moscow). In particular, residents of the Altai Territory, Voronezh, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Pskov regions will be able to vote online in the gubernatorial elections. In the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Arkhangelsk, Vladimir and Yaroslavl regions, the DEG will be used in the election of deputies to legislative assemblies.

Elena Rozhkova; corset “b”