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Nearly 600,000 people voted online in State Duma elections — ministry

In 2021, remote electronic voting was used in the elections at the federal level in six regions of Russia

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Almost 600,000 people have cast their votes online in six federal subjects in the State Duma elections, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media reported.

"Electronic voting was available on the designated portal vybory.gov.ru from September 17 to 19. In total, more than 635,000 voters who submitted an application in the period from August 2 to September 13 on the government service portal Gosuslugi have been included in the list of participants for remote electronic voting. More than 587,000 of them cast their ballots. Residents of the capital voted on the Moscow remote balloting platform," the message says.

Ministry of Digital Development recalled that all online voters had to register on the Gosuslugi government service portal and have a confirmed account. In 2021, remote electronic voting was used in the elections at the federal level in six regions of Russia: Kursk, Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl regions and Sevastopol. Over 92.4% of citizens living in these regions cast their ballots online.

The share of users who voted online under the age of 25 was slightly more than 7%. Almost every fourth participant is a user aged 25 to 35 years, the vast majority of remote voting participants (almost 60%) are users aged 35 to 60 years, and every tenth participant is a user older than 60. That being said, there are one and a half times more women casting their ballots online than men.

"The use of the Mobile Voter application in the last elections enabled voters to cast their ballots at polling station at the place of their actual residence, and not at the place of their registration. More than 2 million citizens submitted applications for voting at a convenient polling station through state services, which is almost 30% more than last summer’s 2020 Russian Constitutional Referendum," the message added.

The service to apply to vote at home was available to those with limited mobility who couldn’t visit a polling station due to health issues or other legitimate reasons. "In addition, the Ministry of Digital Development has traditionally organized video surveillance of the balloting process at polling stations and the counting of votes. That said, 2,800 territorial election commissions and more than 45,800 polling stations were equipped with video surveillance systems," the Ministry of Digital Development concluded.