The plots go to the network – Newspaper Kommersant No. 20 (7465) dated 02/03/2023
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A number of technological innovations will appear in the electoral system of Moscow on the eve of the autumn mayoral elections, including in the monitoring system for remote electronic voting (DEV). Also in the capital, against the background of the growing popularity of the DEG, a decrease in the number of ordinary polling stations is being discussed. Sources of “Kommersant” in the Moscow precinct commissions claim that the process of reduction has already begun. The Moscow City Electoral Committee says that there is a reason to reduce the number of polling stations, but this issue requires serious study.
On February 2, the Central Election Commission (CEC) hosted a meeting with senators on the topic of digitalization of the electoral process. Its open part was held in the form of a kind of tour of digital technologies presented at separate stands.
At the booth dedicated to video surveillance, CEC Deputy Chairman Nikolai Bulaev said that the new system, which is now available only on a closed portal, costs the budget much cheaper than the old one. “The amount of the contract (with Rostelecom for video surveillance. –– “b”) decreased by six times compared to 2012, and the volume of video surveillance remained practically unchanged. That is, the CEC saved about 10 billion rubles,” boasted Mr. Bulaev.
At a stand with a digital system for checking voters’ signatures, the deputy chairman of the CEC told the senators that the system was already used in all regions of Russia. It is able to recognize passport data and quickly check it against the database, as well as recognize the signatures of people with very similar handwriting. By the elections, the system is planned to be finalized: to train the neural network to recognize block letters that are difficult to analyze.
Finally, at the stand dedicated to the Moscow DEG, Nikolay Bulaev announced that the capital is once again preparing innovations in its system. Recall that last year Moscow tested a new system for scanning passport data and an electronic voter register. The federal DEG system does not yet use these technologies. By the 2023 elections, according to the deputy chairman of the CEC, Moscow is developing an electronic terminal for polling stations that will allow the voter to vote without the help of a member of the election committee: the vote will immediately “fall” into the results of the DEG. Mr. Bulaev compared this terminal to a store without a salesperson. “While this is undeniable, we are now in discussion mode, but the first prototype of the terminal is already ready. I think that by the election of the mayor, we will be offered a further step for technological development, equipping the polling station,” he said. The Moscow authorities have not yet commented on the details of this development.
Another innovation in the September elections of the mayor of Moscow will be the ability to control the counting of online votes in the blockchain. As Artem Kostyrko, head of the Department for Improving Territorial Administration and the Development of Smart Projects of the Moscow Government, explained, we are actually talking about a synchronous vote count and the ability to compare the results later. Last year, according to Mr. Kostyrko, two parties, United Russia and New People, have already tested this format, and before the 2023 campaign, all parties will again be invited to take part in this.
Nikolai Bulaev, in turn, said that, given the expansion of electronic technologies, Moscow does not need as many polling stations as it does now: “There are schools with 5-6-8 polling stations. What is the point of keeping eight election commissions when you can combine everything to a reasonable limit without worsening accessibility for the voter, and have a reasonable attitude to the use of budget money? asked Mr. Bulaev rhetorically.
It should be noted that the day before, Ella Pamfilova, chairman of the Central Election Commission, also spoke about changing the number of polling stations in some constituent entities of the Russian Federation: she called on regional election commissions to respect the rights of voters in this process and maintain the necessary conditions for voting. Ms. Pamfilova also stressed that the need to increase or decrease the number of sites must be clearly argued, and promised to send a letter with recommendations to the regions.
In the spring of 2022, the State Duma allowed the consolidation of polling stations in federal cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sevastopol), administrative centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and cities with more than 500 thousand voters. Previously, the maximum number of voters attached to the polling station was 3 thousand people, but now there is no upper limit. In Moscow today there are more than 3.6 thousand plots.
Meanwhile, the process of reducing the number of sites in the capital, apparently, has actually begun. Several sources in the precinct commissions told Kommersant that in a number of districts the chairmen of precinct election commissions (PECs) offer commission members to write applications for transfer to the reserve, justifying this with various reasons. “Clearly, only in some districts of the Eastern Administrative District, they were talking about enlargement of the PEC,” says one of the interlocutors.
Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Electoral Committee Dmitry Reut told Kommersant that there is a reason to reduce the number of polling stations. “A large number of voters participate in the DEG, fewer come to the polling stations. At the same time, polling stations can be enlarged if the most comfortable voting of voters is ensured. For example, there are several polling stations in one school, and if you combine them into one, then the usual voting place for people will not change,” Mr. Reut explained. According to him, this issue has not yet been systematically worked out, since a serious analysis is required, but the legislation allows it.
An informed Kommersant source familiar with the situation explains the reduction in polling stations in Moscow not only by the growing popularity of the DEG, but also by the fact that the Central Election Commission is seizing ballot processing complexes (KOIB) from Moscow. At a meeting on February 2, Ella Pamfilova said that the CEC could not yet increase the number of KOIBs due to Western sanctions. As the head of the Federal Center for Informatization at the CEC, Alexander Sokolchuk, clarified, Russia uses the models of KOIBs of 2017 and 2010: the latter are already outdated, but due to the prevailing circumstances they cannot be replaced with newer ones, so they have to be supported.
It is Moscow that uses KOIBs more actively than other subjects of the Russian Federation. For example, in the municipal elections of 2022, 1.9 thousand of these complexes were used at polling stations in the capital.
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