MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/. The number of people willing to participate in remote e-voting on the federal platform is expected set a new record by the September elections in Russia, Oleg Artamonov, IT expert and co-chairman of the Coordinating Council under the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for public control over voting, stated.

"As of yesterday morning, there were 450,000 applications to participate in e-voting on the federal remote e-voting platform. It can be expected that a new record will be set on the federal platform by the elections. The previous record was slightly over 600,000 applications set in 2021," Artamonov said during an agreement-signing ceremony with political parties on issues of independent monitoring during Unified Election Day.

Artamonov recalled that this year, e-voting will be held on the federal platform in 24 regions (in Moscow - on its own web platforms). "Next year, up to 30 regions will be connected to remote e-voting. The proportion of voters in the regions who want to participate in remote e-voting is also increasing," Artamonov noted.

In this regard, according to him, the issue of remote e-voting’s oversight is very important. "The federal remote e-voting system is designed in such a way that effective monitoring, which ensures transparency of the system, leaves no doubts at any stage of its operation: neither during voting, nor during receipt of ballots, nor during the tallying of results," Artamonov said, emphasizing that effective monitoring of remote e-voting is possible.

"It consists of training observers who will be able to provide an objectively justified verdict on how we should perceive the results of e-voting in these elections: what to change, what else to do," Artamonov pointed out. He reminded that the Public Chamber of Russia has developed a unified standard for public monitoring of e-voting. "It consists of 63 points that we, as experts, consider mandatory to follow during e-voting and sufficient to draw conclusions about the transparency and credibility of the vote," Artamonov said. According to him, this document can become a basis for observers' work, verifying the conformity of each vote to transparency criteria.

In turn, Maxim Grigoriev, co-chair of the Coordination Council for Public Control over Voting, added that this version of the unified observation standard for e-voting is not the final one, as it will be supplemented just like the golden standard for public control at polling stations. "We will keep adding to it from year to year. If there are thoughts, suggestions - we will test them. Next year, we have extremely important elections, and of course, it is essential for us to interact with parties in terms of exchanging opinions. Many things included in the standard were proposed by the parties," Grigoriev said, addressing political representatives.

About the elections

Russia’s Unified Election Day falls on September 10. The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, will take part in the nationwide voting for the first time since joining the Russian Federation. More than 4,000 election campaigns for various public offices are expected to take place across Russia’s 89 regions. As many as 21 regions will hold direct elections of top officials and 20 regions will elect members of local legislatures. Over 34,000 political offices will be filled. Remote e-voting will be implemented in 25 regions, 18 of which are using the system for the first time. E-voting is planned to be used in over 300 federal, regional, and local elections across five time zones from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad.