Outlines were drawn to the observers – Newspaper Kommersant No. 154 (7355) dated 08/24/2022

On Tuesday, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation agreed with a dozen and a half parties on cooperation in monitoring the autumn elections. Campaign participants are preparing to deploy observers to both regular and electronic polling stations: on Tuesday they were given a detailed explanation of how the three control loops for remote electronic voting (DEV) organized on the federal platform will work. The developers of the DEG have finally begun to realize the needs of observers, representatives of the parties state.

Public Chamber (OP) of Russia and representatives of 16 political parties signed August 23 agreement on cooperation and interaction to ensure the observation of voting in the September elections. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia – For Truth were not among the participants in the agreement, but this does not negate the role of the OP as a common mediation center, the chamber is convinced. “Some participate in our events, but do not talk about their participation, and some talk about their non-participation, but they themselves participate,” Maxim Grigoriev, chairman of the coordinating council of the OP for public control over voting, noted on this occasion.

For example, the absence of an agreement does not prevent public observers from working closely with Right Russians at the level of specific regions. And the observers from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which always declares a separate position, were seen at the polling stations with the “gold standard” of the observer from the OP (special forms that allow you to record the voting process.— “b”), added Mr. Grigoriev.

Most participants in the political process appreciate the role of the OP as a coordinator of public observation, the participants of the Tuesday event admitted.

“We recommended that all our regional branches sign similar agreements,” said Sergey Perminov, deputy secretary of the United Russia general council. According to him, the party plans to field from two to nine observers to each polling station, depending on the duration of the voting. In addition, situational centers will operate in the regions, which will link all sites into a single ecosystem. The site of the Public Chamber should become the center of mediation, as “there will be a lot of noise, a lot of emotions,” explained Mr. Perminov. “Our categorical imperative is not only the starry sky above our heads and the moral law within us, but also the legitimacy of the procedures and the legitimacy of the result,” United Russia noted.

Also, “United Russia”, according to him, will be the first party that, together with the Department of Information Technology of the Moscow government, will open a website that allows everyone to monitor online voting.

The head of the central executive committee of the New People party, Oleg Zakharov, considers the creation of situational centers and public observation centers in the regions under the auspices of the OP a good practice, since this will allow the exchange of information and ensure that the interests of all parties are taken into account. But a new tool for monitoring the DEG may appear at New People even earlier than at United Russia, the party member promised.

The Public Chamber is also betting on in-depth monitoring of the DEG. On Tuesday, a videoconference was held there with regional headquarters to monitor online voting organized in seven regions on a federal platform (Moscow will use its own DEG system for municipal elections).

According to Oleg Artamonov, deputy chairman of the territorial election commission (TEC) of the DEG, leader of the Direct Democracy Party, monitoring of online voting will have three circuits.

The first circuit will be made up of TEC DEG observers who are present directly in the commission. Their task is to control compliance with procedures. Transferring and entering voter lists into the system, splitting and assembling the key, receiving the final protocol – all these actions must be clear and transparent. As one of the developers of the DEG system, Deputy Director of RTLabs Yuri Satirov explained, TEC DEG observers will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with the lists of voters, and in addition to the total number of voters online, for the first time, it will be possible to see, by polling stations, how many applications for participation in online voting have been sent at the place of residence.

The second circuit is the group of expert observation. Last year, Mr. Artamonov recalled, she acted on the initiative of the OP and implemented the “digital safe package” project (saving all transactions during the voting day and verifying the data after decryption). This year, the expert group received official status and was approved by a resolution of the Central Election Commission. The work of this group requires special knowledge and will be based on direct access to the observer node via closed communication channels.

Finally, the third circuit is being created for observers from the regions and will be available through the official remote monitoring portal. Any participant in the campaign who has an account on the State Services (and 165 out of 166 self-nominated candidates registered in the regions) will be able to appoint such observers. It does not imply direct access to the software and hardware complex, but it will be official data updated every 30 minutes.

At the end of the single voting day in September 2021, many politicians and experts criticized the results of the electronic elections, noting the lack of guarantees for the control of DEGs and an unregulated monitoring system. However, now, as Oleg Zakharov told Kommersant (he is also a member of the TEC DEG), it is already obvious that the tools for electronic monitoring of the DEG are reaching a new level: from handicraft and “on request” to a systemic understanding by developers of the needs of observers. “Therefore, now our surveillance capabilities are being multiplied, we are seeing a qualitative transition to end-to-end electronic surveillance,” the politician emphasized.

According to Mr. Zakharov, the basic DEG monitoring functionality provided by both federal and Moscow Internet voting operators is quite sufficient to detect violations.

First of all, we are talking about the periodic unloading of the database of blockchain transactions, which allows you to check the immutability of records, that is, the absence of adjustments to the expression of will, “loss” of electronic votes or “rewriting” of electronic ballots. It also provides for the launch of “control bulletins” to selectively check the correctness of such transactions. Finally, analytics of DEG turnout by period and geography (in the context of constituencies and precincts) makes it possible to identify and analyze electoral anomalies, Mr. Zakharov adds: “If these tools work, then we will definitely notice that something goes wrong, deviates from norms, and then, with the help of election commissions and technical experts, we will find out what caused the errors and how they affected the vote.”

Anastasia Kornya