Russians outside the Russian Federation will not be able to vote in elections through the DEG

In the upcoming elections in September, only citizens located in Russia will be able to vote using remote electronic voting (DEG). This was announced by the head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation Ella Pamfilova. According to her, Western countries “made this format impossible” due to a number of sanctions imposed against Russia. Pamfilova stressed that the decision to limit is related to the protection of DEG inside the country. The head of the CEC specified that the commission is trying to solve this problem and understand “how and where to find at least some holes so that citizens who are used to voting abroad can do it.”

The restriction is not done in order to deliberately restrict Russians who want to vote, CEC member Anton Lopatin emphasized in a conversation with Vedomosti. “This is purely a security issue, since foreign IP addresses are used there,” Lopatin said. He recalled that it was previously impossible to use the DEG, for example, in regional elections from abroad, “there is nothing new in this.” A Vedomosti source familiar with the technical support of the DEG admitted that with the help of a VPN, Russians in other countries will still be able to vote. Vedomosti made sure that the voting site vybory.gov.ru was opened from abroad with a VPN via a Russian server.

Indeed, according to the law, voting from abroad is possible only in federal elections, since in this case voters are not tied to specific regions (unless we are talking about choosing a single-mandate deputy). Moreover, during the elections of deputies to the State Duma, the parties themselves determine in favor of which of the regional groups to consolidate foreign votes. Citizens officially residing abroad who are registered and vote at special polling stations in consular offices can vote. As of July 1, their number slightly exceeded 2 million people. Obviously, DEG can now be used by those who are not registered.

The authorities have nothing to lose in the form of voters abroad, says Alexei Makarkin, first vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies. According to him, they need a “loyal electorate”, and he “is located inside the country.” Political scientist Alexander Nemtsev, in turn, admits that there will be dissatisfied with such a restriction, but only a small group of voters. “First of all, these are representatives of the Russian non-systemic opposition, the notorious representatives of the [оппозиционера Алексея] Navalny (included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring. – Vedomosti),” he said.

On June 7, members of the CEC decided to hold a DEG in elections in 25 regions. A total of 30 regions applied for participation in the DEG – 24 of them were approved (a special TEC was created for them). The capital will vote through the DEG according to its own system. In the fall of 2022, the chairman of the CEC declared the unacceptability of the forced introduction of DEG in all regions of Russia. Pamfilova noted that voters should have the right to choose. It allowed for the distribution of the DEG throughout the country, but the security of the system and the level of confidence of citizens are important. In the presidential elections in March 2024, only those regions that have experienced it before will be able to apply the DEG. Now there are about 30 of them.

On July 26, the head of the CEC announced 66,000 applications for participation in electronic voting in the autumn elections of 2023. Governors will be elected in 21 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, parliaments will approve five more heads of regions, elections to legislative assemblies will be held in 20 constituent entities. As noted in the CEC, the results of the DEG in the elections will be made public almost immediately after the closure of the polling stations. Back in 2021, the Public Election Observation Headquarters in Moscow sent a proposal to the presidential administration, parliament and the Foreign Ministry to create a single electronic constituency for Russians living abroad. This would also help to solve the problem with the voting of Russian citizens in the Donbass, then the head of the headquarters Alexei Venediktov (recognized as a foreign agent) said. However, so-called extraterritorial sites have been created for them.