The head of the working group of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy Problems, Maxim Grigoryev, called the amendments to the election law that allow citizens to vote from home relevant and relevant.
Recall, on the eve of the State Duma deputies adopted amendments to the law “On Basic Guarantees of Voting Rights and the Right to Participate in the Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation”, which allow voting at federal level elections by mail, as well as through remote electronic voting.
“The situation with epidemics, such as the coronavirus epidemic, is a systemic factor in the political life of most countries of the world, so we need to prepare for such threats. Now many experts say that a second wave of infections is possible if certain rules are not followed. As a result, we get people who cannot attend polling stations without the risk of infecting other citizens. But in no case should they be deprived of their voting rights, ”said Maxim Grigoryev in a comment“Reedus“.
According to him, the law on remote voting allows to resolve the contradiction between the guarantee of citizens’ voting rights and the need to isolate themselves at home.
“It is for this that the law is passed so that people can vote without any special difficulties. We are talking about sick people, about patients in hospitals, about those who are possibly infected and temporarily in quarantine. Already in Russia it is hundreds of thousands of people, ”Grigoryev emphasized.
The expert recalled that at the regional level, such an opportunity was provided for by Russian legislation for 18 years. From 2003 to 2011, postal voting was conducted in the Sverdlovsk, Yaroslavl, Murmansk regions and in St. Petersburg. At the moment, it is provided for in the Tyumen region. An experiment on voting over the Internet in 2019 was conducted in Moscow during the election of the seventh composition of the Moscow City Duma.
Grigoryev also referred to the rich foreign experience in conducting remote voting. So, postal voting is widely used in more than twenty countries of the world, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, USA, Finland, France, Switzerland. , Sweden, Japan. Canada, France, Estonia and other countries use electronic remote voting.
Maxim Grigoryev expressed confidence that someday remote voting will supplant the traditional one due to the convenience and development of technical means, but this does not mean that it will be impossible to vote otherwise. If for some reason a person does not want to participate in the electronic voting procedure, for example, he is not registered on the State Services website, he will be entitled to vote using a paper ballot.
“No one is going to cancel the existing voting methods. Practice shows that the number of people voting by mail in a normal situation is not so great. Nowhere in the world has voting completely supplanted other forms, ”he concluded.
As reported by Reedus, according to the November survey The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, more than half of Russians supported the holding of online voting in elections in all regions of the country.
The idea of conducting online voting across the country is particularly hotly supported by young people: in the age group from 18 to 24 years, 71% of respondents were in favor of allowing voters to vote remotely, 27% opposed and 2% abstained. Among Russians aged 25 to 34, the share of skeptics is greater – in this group already 52% are more likely to support their expression of will via the Internet, 44% do not approve of this, 4% found it difficult to answer.
During the survey, the youth audience also supported the translation of the collection of signatures for candidates into electronic format: 76% among those aged 18-24, and 65% in the group of 25-34-year-olds approve of such a transition. Citizens aged 35 to 44 years (56%) also agree with them.
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