How Pamfilova reported to Putin on preparations for regional and presidential elections

The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, at a meeting with the president, reported on preparations for a single voting day in September, dwelling separately on preparations for the electoral cycle in 2024: “The upcoming presidential elections are not just some regular ordinary presidential elections, these are elections , on which the fate of not only Russia, but the world in general, will depend for many years to come. And colleagues understand this, that is, this is our electoral front line.”

Pamfilova promised that the digital analogue of the state automated system (GAS) “Vybory” would be ready for the presidential elections. “Its main advantage, which makes it invulnerable, just like the current Elections GAS, is that it will also be completely autonomous from the Internet, from the global system,” she recalled. “Now everything we do, all digitalization comes with the requirement that it be ours: both our hardware and our software.”

Pamfilova spoke about the launch of a new digital system back in 2020, after innovations such as online voting were tested. The work on its creation by the CEC together with the Ministry of Digital Development and PJSC “Rostelecom“began in 2019. Then Pamfilova said that the system should be launched by 2022. “This will expand the maximum opportunities for all participants in the electoral process: voters, parties, candidates, observers, media representatives,” the head of the CEC said then.

The automated system GAS “Vybory” was created at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research Institute “Voskhod” by presidential decree in 1994, in accordance with the concept developed by the CEC. GAS “Vybory” contains the data of voters for accounting, through it the planning of the stages of election campaigns, control over the receipt and expenditure of funds from election funds, summing up the results of voting and other tasks of election commissions are carried out. The current version of the system was developed in 2012.

Elements of the digital platform were already used on the single voting day in 2022 and will be used in the elections in September 2023, Deputy Chairman of the CEC Nikolai Bulaev told Vedomosti. “The digital platform is already being used by certain segments, many subjects of the Russian Federation are participating in this testing. By the presidential campaign, we expect that the digital platform will function in an active mode,” he says. At the same time, Bulaev explained that for the presidential elections, the CEC will have a “triple reserve”: the main and backup pack of the digital platform, as well as the old GAS “Vybory”. “In fact, we will have three independent systems, we are confident in the reliability of all three systems,” the deputy chairman of the CEC emphasized.

The presidential elections will start not in March, but already in December 2023, recalled electoral expert Grigory Melkonyants, respectively, the new system should be ready by that moment. “There is a certain risk in terms of safety and reliability if the whole system is not tested. All elements of the digital platform will be tested, apparently, after a single voting day, namely, it will have the main load, when it would be possible to arrange a stress test for the platform,” he said.

Pamfilova allowed for the possibility that elections in new regions could be postponed. “If circumstances of unforeseen force arise – in some area the situation may deteriorate sharply, we will understand that there is a serious danger to the life and health of the residents who are there – we have the right to postpone these elections in this or that area,” she told the president. Putin signed the amendments allowing elections to be held under martial law on May 29.

Pamfilova said that the interim heads of the new regions had previously addressed the CEC with a request to hold elections this year. Before calling elections, the election commissions consulted with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB. The CEC has the right to shorten the period of the campaign, as well as to suspend electoral activities that have already begun, if the preparation and conduct of elections pose a threat to the life and health of citizens. After the dangerous circumstances are removed, the campaign can be resumed.

“We strongly recommend our colleagues in these regions to take advantage of this opportunity,” Pamfilova urged. In addition, one can vote in the regions not only with a passport, but also with any identity document issued by the Russian authorities. Extraterritorial polling stations have been created on the territory of the new regions and beyond, so that residents who have left can vote.

Putin clarified whether there will be remote electronic voting (DEG) in the new regions. Pamfilova replied that he would not be there yet (Vedomosti wrote about this earlier). “It’s very difficult there – we are also holding the Elections State Audit Office there, but now it’s absolutely impossible either. You understand, such different situations, wartime, so not yet, and it is technically very difficult to do it now,” said the head of the CEC.

Judging by the discussion of the issue at this level, there is a possibility of canceling elections in new regions, says political scientist Alexander Nemtsev. “Obviously, it was beneficial for the system for them to go there. But since Pamfilova reports this to the president, it means that there are high risks that it will be difficult to organize them,” he said.