Moscow announced the complete readiness of the electronic voting system for the elections

On September 5, the final meeting of the Public Headquarters for Election Observation was held, dedicated to the organization of voting in 2023. This was reported by the press service of the headquarters. The meeting took place in the Krasnaya Roza business district, where the Public Headquarters will be located on election days, September 8-10. In particular, the topics of online voting, terminals, observation of the course of elections and decoding of the results were touched upon.

Artem Kostyrko, Head of the Department for Improvement of Territorial Administration and Development of Smart Projects of the Moscow Government, recalled that it would be possible to vote online from 8:00 on September 8 to 19:59 on September 10. He urged citizens, if possible, not to vote during the first hours of the elections, since at this time the system is especially loaded.

Also, voters will have the opportunity to make a choice using electronic voting terminals, which will be installed at all polling stations in Moscow. According to Kostyrko, these terminals have passed stress tests and are ready for any emergency situations, including power surges.

The head of the headquarters, Vadim Kovalev, added that the organization’s observers would monitor the terminals. He specified that maintenance of the apparatus would not be considered a violation of the voting process.

Voting in Moscow will be controlled by the Public Headquarters, which includes 11,680 observers. In addition, anyone will be able to independently monitor the progress of online voting and voting through terminals on a special page on the Internet – an observer.

“In addition, access to surveillance will be organized using the surveillance node located at the Public Headquarters,” Kovalev specified. He noted that at the end of each voting day, special printers at the polling stations will print a “paper trail”. We are talking about encrypted transactions with data on the number of voters.

Another issue at the meeting was the procedure for sharing the decryption key for remote electronic voting. It will be divided into several parts and handed over to the “custodians” on September 7 at the Moscow City Electoral Commission. Decryption of the results will begin after the voting is completed and the key is assembled. Kostyrko explained that the timing of decoding will depend on the number of voters. The procedure will begin at 20:15 on September 10 and will end no earlier than 21:00 on the same day.

The results of online voting will be announced first. It will take more time to count the votes at the polling stations, the headquarters noted. After the count, the final protocols will be sent to the territorial election commissions (TECs), the “paper” votes will be added to the results of electronic voting. It is clarified that it will be possible to talk about the official results of the elections only after all the protocols arrive at the TECs and are processed.

Political analyst Sergei Polyakov expects a fairly high turnout at remote electronic voting (DEG) in Moscow. “In the last elections of municipal deputies in Moscow, more than half of all those who voted were members of the DEG. A year has passed since then, the technology is being actively promoted by the Moscow authorities,” he said. in the elections of municipal deputies in Moscow in 2022. accepted participation of over 2.4 million Muscovites, while more than 1.7 million people voted online.

At the elections to the State Duma in 2021, the turnout for the DEG in Moscow exceeded 96% (of the number of those registered for the DEG). Total in 2021 at DEG was approved over 2 million applications. More than 1.9 million people voted for candidates for deputies in the federal constituency. Over 1.9 million Muscovites also voted in a single-mandate constituency with the same turnout.

But, according to Polyakov, it is incorrect to compare this figure with the expected turnout for the DEG in this year’s Moscow mayoral elections. The expert recalled that in 2023, in order to vote online, voters do not need to apply in advance, it is enough to have an account on the State Services. In previous years, in order to vote online, Muscovites had to apply in advance through the State Services.

“Before, registration was required. If a person has registered, made some effort to register, then there is already a high probability that he will vote. The indicator for 2021 and what will happen this year is not correct to compare. This year it is no longer necessary to register, so there will be no such figure,” he explained.

The head of the Public Headquarters, Vadim Kovalev, said that the DEG is gaining momentum every year and is becoming more and more popular. “It feels and according to the sociology that we see, the turnout at the DEG [в этом году] will be higher than it was in the municipal elections, with which we can compare from the last one,” he said.

This year, the election of the mayor of Moscow will be held from 8 to 10 September. In addition to electronic voting, Moscow residents will also be able to vote in the traditional way – using a paper ballot. For citizens who cannot come to the site for health reasons, voting at home will be organized.

Participate in elections will Acting Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin (from United Russia), Deputy Speakers of the State Duma Boris Chernyshov (from LDPR) and Vladislav Davankov (from New People), State Duma deputy, head of the Moscow branch of A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth Dmitry Gusev and Moscow City Duma deputy, grandson of the Communist Party leader Leonid Zyuganov.

Sobyanin took office in October 2010 by presidential decree. Since then, he has been re-elected twice as a self-nominated candidate, and this year, for the first time, he ran for mayor from United Russia. Former press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov declaredthat the head of state Vladimir Putin highly appreciates the results of the work of the current mayor of Moscow.