Muscovites are in favor of using online voting both in the capital and throughout the country

More than two-thirds of Muscovites (70%) consider it necessary to use remote electronic voting (DEV) in elections, and 71% support its distribution throughout the country, Russian Field researchers found. More than half of the residents of the capital (primarily young people) trust the DEG, a little more than a third do not, most often respondents over 45 years of age. On the whole, as the survey showed, 61% of voters trust the elections in Moscow, and 66% intend to take part in them this fall.

More than half of Muscovites (53%) trust electronic voting in the capital, 36% do not (11% found it difficult to answer). Men and respondents older than 45 years of age are slightly more likely to distrust DEG, and trust is highest in the 18–26 and 35–44 age groups. Such data follows from a survey by the Russian Field research group, the results of which are available to Kommersant. The study was conducted on August 30-31 by order of the Public Chamber of Moscow by the method of a street survey of 1 thousand citizens over 18 years old, the maximum error was 3.1%.

Judging by these data, 70% of respondents believe that DEG should be used in the capital (23% expressed the opposite opinion), and 73% consider this method of voting convenient (17% complain about inconvenience). 56% of respondents positively assess the quality of the organization of the DEG in Moscow, 22% have not yet used the new form of expression of will and refrained from evaluating, and only 15% gave a negative review. The authors of the study note that young and affluent respondents more often positively assess the DEG. At the same time, 71% of the residents of the capital believe that it is necessary to provide the possibility of online voting throughout Russia, 22% oppose this, and another 7% found it difficult to answer.

On the whole, 61% of citizens trust the elections in Moscow, while 32% do not trust them. Two-thirds of metropolitan voters (66%) intend to take part in the September elections, and slightly more than a quarter (27%) do not want to do so. Muscovites who plan to vote online or at polling stations turned out to be approximately equal: 48% of respondents would rather choose the DEG, and 45% would choose the usual trip to polling stations. At the same time, the share of residents of the capital who want to vote electronically has grown by 8 percentage points since May, according to a Russian Field survey.

Recall that DEG in Moscow this year will be used for the fifth time. For the first time, online voting in a test mode was used in 2019 at the Moscow City Duma elections, then, already in a full-scale format, at the plebiscite on amendments to the Constitution in 2020, at the State Duma elections in 2021 and at the 2022 municipal elections. In 2023, the “Million Prizes” promotion will again operate for DEG participants in the capital. As Kommersant previously reported, this time there will be no expensive rewards in the form of cars and apartments: the winners of the promotion will only be able to receive coupons for 1, 3 and 5 thousand points (1 point = 1 rub.).

Elections of the mayor of Moscow and municipal deputies in the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative districts will be held from 8 to 10 September. Another innovation awaits citizens there: electronic voting terminals (TEG) will be installed at each polling station, and the votes cast through them will immediately enter the DEG system. TEGs will also be used for home voting, their performance was tested on August 25. At the same time, citizens will still have the opportunity to vote in the traditional way using a paper ballot. In addition, the number of polling stations in the capital in 2023 has been reduced by a third, but, as the Moscow City Electoral Committee assured, their usual locations have been preserved. Optimization took place at the expense of sites located in one zone – for example, instead of two or three sites, the school will have one.

There are five candidates running in the 2023 mayoral election. These are the current mayor Sergei Sobyanin (United Russia), Moscow City Duma deputy from the Communist Party Leonid Zyuganov, State Duma vice-speakers Boris Chernyshov (LDPR) and Vladislav Davankov (New People), as well as State Duma deputy from A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) Dmitry Gusev. According to Russian Field data, at the beginning of August (August 3–5, 2023, an initiative street poll of 1,000 Muscovites, an error of no more than 3.1%), 65.5% of those who intend to participate in the elections were going to vote for Mr. Sobyanin ( among those who prefer DEG, the mayor’s rating was higher -72.1%), and Mr. Zyuganov was in second place with 5.2%. Next came the candidates Chernyshov (2%), Gusev (1.9%) and Davankov (0.9%).

Elena Rozhkova