How was the first day of voting?
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Friday, September 8, was the first of three voting days for elections at all levels. The Central Election Commission announced the opening of polling stations in 54 regions; seven more regions chose to conduct voting over two or one day, that is, they will join the rest on Saturday and Sunday. Turnout so far varies from region to region; The leaders in the gubernatorial elections are the Kemerovo region, Chukotka, Yakutia and Moscow. No violations that could affect the election result were recorded on the first day; In only one case, in Pushkino near Moscow, an investigation was carried out into the fact of a possible stuffing. Online voting systems were subject to attacks throughout the day, which in some cases caused temporary difficulties for users, but in all cases the problems were resolved. So far, voting in new regions of Russia is taking place without complications.
On Friday, September 8, the Central Election Commission announced the opening of polling stations in 54 Russian regions. It should be noted that in total elections within the framework of a single voting day 2023 are being held in 85 regions; We are talking about municipal and regional campaigns, as well as by-elections to the State Duma in four districts. In 21 regions, including Moscow and the Moscow region, heads are elected through direct elections. Regional parliaments are being formed in 20 regions, including the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. In another 17, elections of heads and deputies of city dumas of administrative centers are held, including the only direct elections of the mayor in Khabarovsk. In seven subjects of the Russian Federation this year they abandoned three-day voting: on September 9 and 10 they will vote in the Omsk and Sverdlovsk regions, as well as the Khabarovsk Territory, only on September 10 – in Bashkiria, Buryatia, Ingushetia and the Tyumen region.
The leading turnout in the elections of regional heads, according to the Central Election Commission website at the time of publication, on the first day was shown by Yakutia (20.39%), Kemerovo region (31.23%) and Chukotka (31.10%).
Voters are still least active in the Altai Territory (5.8%), Pskov Region (6.9%) and Khakassia (7.2%). The average figure for gubernatorial elections in all regions, according to Kommersant’s calculations at the time of publication, is slightly less than 14%. In the elections to regional parliaments, the leaders in turnout were the Kherson region (53.19%) and the DPR (45.43%). In the Zaporozhye region and LPR, turnout was 28.16% and 26.47%, respectively. Yakutia (20.39%) and Kemerovo region (31.23%) also showed high activity. The Yaroslavl region (3.93%) and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (5.86%) are still outsiders. In Moscow, the turnout in the mayoral elections was 20.7%, the Moscow City Election Commission reported.
Cheburashka, pirate and high degree
Observers in most regions did not record any significant violations on the first day of voting. True, the Independent Public Monitoring association reported that they had received more than 7 thousand reports of possible violations, but few of them were confirmed. The association managed to solve the identified problem in 16 cases, ten more messages turned out to be “fake”, one violation is under investigation: in Pushkino, near Moscow, a voting box was sealed at one of the polling stations due to possible stuffing of ballots.
In the Amur region, according to the local branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, their observer recorded the stuffing of a stack of ballots at one of the polling stations in Belogorsk. Party members filed an appeal to law enforcement agencies. The regional election commission did not confirm the communists’ message. In the Arkhangelsk region, the LDPR election monitoring headquarters “Kolchuga” discovered voting instructions that were allegedly issued to employees of one of the enterprises in the city of Onega. It asked voters to vote for United Russia and its single-mandate candidate Mikhail Zavyalov in the elections to the regional legislative assembly. The photographed ballot and passport had to be sent to the specified phone number; senders were promised a certificate for 500 rubles. The LDPR sent a statement to the Investigative Committee.
In the Trans-Baikal Territory, local media reported that a PEC member was seen drunk at one of the polling stations in Chita. According to media reports, the chairman of the higher territorial commission visited the site, and an internal inspection began. In Khimki, near Moscow, a man dressed as Cheburashka came to a polling station. The video went viral on Telegram channels. Cheburashka refused to take off his suit so that a member of the commission could identify him, so he was not allowed to vote. But in Vladivostok, a man in a pirate costume (the mascot of the Admiral HC) voted without any problems in the elections for governor of the Primorsky Territory.
The Duma parties do not report any significant violations during the elections.
Deputy Secretary of the General Council of United Russia Sergei Perminov told Kommersant that no violations that could have an impact on the voting process or its results were identified, all messages are promptly reviewed by the party’s situation centers. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation traditionally makes complaints about the process of online voting. According to the secretary of the party’s Central Committee, Sergei Obukhov, their observer Viktor Tolstoguzov was not allowed to participate in the online voting at the territorial election commission. In Moscow, the communists complained about the freezing of the DEG system, which Mr. Obukhov witnessed. However, the communist also complained about “traditional” violations “from Novosibirsk to the European part”: according to the Secretary of the Central Committee, there are “enough” of them. The SRZP did not record any serious violations on the first day of voting, the party’s press service told Kommersant. LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky told Kommersant that the party noticed some violations, and most of them were in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. “In Moscow, an incident center operates around the clock, collecting data from all regions,” said Mr. Slutsky. “Each message is reviewed by party lawyers, and a comprehensive decision is made on measures to suppress violations.” “New People” also reported that they had noted violations, but they promised to provide accurate statistics “a little later.”
In standby
This year, 25 regions are using remote electronic voting (DEG). These are the republics of Karelia, Crimea and Chuvashia, Altai, Kamchatka and Perm territories, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Vladimir, Voronezh, Kaliningrad, Kursk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Pskov, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk, Tula, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl regions, as well as the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In addition, for the fifth time this year, Moscow, which has its own platform, is voting online (the rest of the regions vote through the federal system).
In the capital, there were indeed some technical glitches that Mr. Obukhov mentioned. One of the capital’s voters told Kommersant that on the morning of September 8, he could not vote through the DEG portal due to a failure with the delivery of an SMS message confirming the identity of the participant. Reports of similar incidents were also published in a number of Telegram channels. The Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT) explained these failures as an attempt to attack “the infrastructure of the company responsible for delivering messages.” The attack was successfully repelled, voting continues as usual, the DIT assured, adding that by 16:00 more than a million voters had voted through the DEG.
Rostelecom, which ensures the information security of the system, also stated that the failures were related precisely to attacks by cybercriminals, and not to problems on the side of the organizers of electronic voting. The company said that from 8 to 12 noon in Moscow, more than 5 thousand attacks on voting resources were blocked: DDoS attacks, attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, etc. Also during this time, an “incident” in the field of cybersecurity was recorded, “which indicates about a more targeted interest of attackers in infrastructure.”
First and new
For the first time in Russian jurisdiction, residents of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions are voting in the current elections. These regions are under martial law, therefore, according to recent amendments to the law, in the event of a security threat, elections can be suspended at any stage.
For residents of new territories who are located outside of them on voting days, extraterritorial polling stations were organized in 81 regions of the Russian Federation. Voting took place from September 1 to September 4. Directly on the territory of the new subjects, early voting began on August 31 in remote settlements where there is no special premises, as well as in places along the line of combat contact. It lasted until September 7.
According to the chairman of Independent Public Monitoring, Alexander Brod, the first day of voting in the new constituent entities is taking place “clearly, within the framework of the law.” “It’s alarming that there were several shellings in the Kherson region; the election commission had to be moved from the line of fire,” the social activist noted. According to him, the Western and Ukrainian press reports that voting there is allegedly taking place “at gunpoint.” “Our experts and observers report that in the new regions voting is proceeding as usual, and the fighters are also voting,” Mr. Brod noted.
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