How voters will be rewarded for participating in the presidential election

Apartments, cars, trips to Crimea and trips to the Valley of Geysers are just a small part of the prizes that Russians can win by participating in the presidential elections on March 15-17. As Kommersant found out, this time not only in Moscow, but also in many other regions, lotteries, quizzes and polls will be held in parallel with voting, designed to stimulate voter turnout. However, some of the organizers of such events deny their connection with the presidential campaign.

The traditional capital campaign “Million Prizes” will be held during the elections on March 15–17 for the ninth time, the head of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Vladimir Platonov, told reporters earlier. According to him, representatives of the business community again took the initiative to organize the next stage of the program. As in September 2023, when Muscovites elected the mayor, all citizens who used remote electronic voting (DEG) will participate in it, both on the mos.ru website and through an electronic terminal directly at the polling station.

Mr. Platonov also recalled that six months ago 2.5 million metropolitan voters took part in the “Million Prizes”, and 89% of them became winners. This time it is planned to draw 3.5 million prizes – these are certificates with a nominal value of 1 thousand, 3 thousand or 5 thousand points (they can be exchanged for promotional codes from promotion partners at the rate of 1 point = 1 ruble), as well as smart speakers with semi-annual subscription. In addition to the main draw, there will be additional draws: parents of minor children can receive tickets to an amusement park for three (for this, information about the child must be verified in their personal account on mos.ru), and families will receive certificates in denominations of 15 thousand, 25 thousand, 50 thousand and 100 thousand points (if both spouses vote online).

Finally, there are also guaranteed prizes. Thus, those who voted online for the first time will receive 1 thousand points, citizens over 60 years old will also receive 1 thousand points for purchases in pharmacies, and voters under 25 years old will receive 500 points for subscriptions to online services. The drawing will be held daily from March 16 to 18 among the DEG participants who voted the day before. You can exchange points for certificates until the end of August.

Moscow will not be the only subject of the Russian Federation where voters will be encouraged to take part in the elections.

For example, the government of Kamchatka organized a quiz dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia. To participate in the prize draw, you must register on the DEG before March 11 and answer five simple questions (name the capital of Crimea, a children’s camp on the Black Sea coast, etc.), and vote on March 15–17. The winners will be determined on March 25 live on the Youth of Kamchatka public page on the VKontakte social network. The organizers promise to give away 1.5 thousand prizes, including a UAZ Patriot car, a trip to Crimea for two, six helicopter excursions to the Valley of Geysers, as well as ten tablets, smartphones, TVs, laptops, portable and smart speakers, and headphones. and even Sony PlayStation 5 game consoles.

In addition, residents of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yelizovo who decide to vote at the polling stations at their place of registration will be able to receive certificates for cinemas to watch Russian cartoons, and residents over 65 years old will receive “small, pleasant gifts to celebrate this historical event with friends.” ” According to Kommersant, we are talking about certificates for food sets that can be obtained at one of the discount retail chains.

It is curious that in Crimea itself, no draws dedicated to the anniversary are planned during voting in the presidential elections. There, according to Kommersant sources, the authorities are so far preparing to hold only festive and entertaining patriotic events.

A quiz with prizes “The Novosibirsk Region in the History of Russia” will be held in the Novosibirsk region, said Andrei Klyuzov, deputy chairman of the regional government and minister of regional policy. According to him, the authorities “thought for a long time” whether to launch such an action, since from the outside it may seem that they “can’t cope with something.” “But we held a focus group, looked at it, and in general everyone was very interested in it, and that’s why there will be a quiz,” said Mr. Klyuzov.

At the same time, it will be aimed not only at participants of the DEG, but also at voters who vote in the traditional way. Those who wish, regardless of the method of expressing their will, will need to personally appear at the polling station, fill out a questionnaire with five questions about the history of the region and hand it over to the “questionnaire collection point” at the polling station in exchange for a tear-off coupon. In total, several hundred prizes will be raffled off, including an apartment in Novosibirsk and five cars. The organizer is the Fund for Support of Social Initiatives “Unity”.

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, a similar quiz dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the region will be held by the Council of Municipal Formations and the local branch of the Russian Lawyers’ Association. Three apartments, six cars, 60 smartphones, 30 wireless headphones and 30 smart speakers are up for grabs. A questionnaire with answers to questions about the history of the region must be handed over to activists who will be at the polling stations (DEGs are not held in the Krasnoyarsk Territory). The results will be summed up live on the regional TV channel “Yenisei” on March 16, 17 and 19.

Let us note that the Krasnoyarsk branch of the Lawyers’ Association already has experience in conducting such sweepstakes. Thus, in 2020, legal scholars distributed prizes to participants in voting on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. But then the prize fund looked richer: ten apartments with views of the Yenisei and Nikolaevsky Bridge, four Niva cars and six Lada Grantas.

In the Sverdlovsk region, the quiz, also dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the region, will be called “Support Region”. Its organizers were the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Federation of Trade Unions and the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of the region, and the operator was the Sverdlovsk Regional Charitable Foundation. According to its head Yakov Silin, the quiz participants will compete for 40 one-room apartments in Yekaterinburg, 90 cars, 20 Ural motorcycles and 1 thousand smartphones. In addition, everyone is guaranteed to receive a commemorative medal in honor of the 90th anniversary of the region (it is planned to produce 3 million of them). The winners will be determined on television on Cosmonautics Day on April 12.

As in the Novosibirsk region, all voters will be able to take part in the drawing, regardless of their voting method (in the Sverdlovsk region there will also be a DEG). For this purpose, more than 2 thousand special points will be opened near polling stations. “In a library, museum or famous institution in a particular neighborhood,” explained Mr. Silin. According to him, the results of the quiz itself will not in any way affect the chances of the participants, that is, you can answer literally all the questions in the questionnaire incorrectly.

At the same time, Yakov Silin assured Kommersant that the organizers decided to hold the quiz on March 15–18 in order to reach “more residents and make them feel involved in the history of the Urals and Russia,” and not in order to increase turnout in the presidential elections. “Was it mentioned somewhere about elections? Yes, they will pass anyway; if a person doesn’t want to, he won’t vote. People will come and answer questions about the history of the region,” explained Mr. Silin.

The festival “Spring has come to the family” will be held in the Kurgan region from March 15 to 17. As part of it, the Foundation for Support of Regional Cooperation and Development will hold a local history quiz “Great Names of Russia. Kurgan Region”, where more than 4 thousand prizes will be raffled off, including a one-room apartment and three Lada Niva Travel cars. Adult residents of the region will be able to participate in the quiz by filling out a special form with a QR code and answering three questions. Volunteers will hand out the forms. However, this quiz is also not formally connected with the presidential elections.

In the Yaroslavl region, at the same time, a vote will be held on objects for improvement in 2025, and at the same time there will be a quiz “Believe in a Dream” with a drawing of prizes, including “an apartment in Yaroslavl, cars and thousands of other valuable gifts.” “The draw will be as transparent as possible,” promised Governor Mikhail Evraev. Voting forms will be available from volunteers near polling stations, and they will also be distributed at businesses (in particular, for those who choose to use the DEG). The organizer of the event is the Yaroslavl Chamber of Crafts.

Let us note that voting on improvement projects will take place simultaneously with the presidential elections in a number of other regions, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. It is possible that additional events will be organized along with it to attract citizens, but a final decision on any lotteries and drawings has not yet been made, Kommersant’s sources in the region say. And in Kislovodsk, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the Stavropol Territory, a raffle for health treatments in trade union sanatoriums is being discussed. True, in what form it will be organized (in the form of a lottery or the presentation of certificates to the first, hundredth or some other citizen who comes to the site) has not yet been decided.

Andrey Prah, corset “Kommersant”