They are not handing out paper ballots, are offering online voting, and are threatening criminal liability. What is happening in Moscow?

They are not handing out paper ballots, are offering online voting, and are threatening criminal liability. What is happening in Moscow?

Today, reports have been coming in from different districts of Moscow about problems with paper voting: lines are forming at polling stations, systems are “hanging,” ballots are not being issued, and some voters are being offered online voting instead.

OVD-Info’s bot also received such appeals. At several polling stations, people were told that the system registering voters to receive paper ballots was not working. One person who wrote to us said he was offered online voting several times, but in the end he waited and voted on paper.

Later, the issuing of paper ballots in Moscow was resumed. Election observation coordinator Ivan Drobotov told Vot Tak that for about an hour and a half the electronic lists would start working and then stop again. According to him, most voters chose to wait for paper ballots, although commission members suggested they vote through online voting or come back later.

The Moscow City Election Commission explains the failures as “large-scale external cyberattacks.” According to the commission’s deputy chair Dmitry Reut, they affected, among other things, the electronic voter list used when issuing paper ballots. Now, he claims, the system is operating stably.

Why do many people not want to vote online?

The main complaint about electronic voting is that it is difficult to verify independently. Important Stories calls online voting a “black box.” Journalists also found that the new GAS Vybory system can accept the results of Moscow’s online voting even if the electronic signature on the file with the results has not been verified.

In addition, during the first days of voting, users encountered virtual queues in the capital’s online voting system.

And what about criminal liability?

Reut said that several people, after receiving an electronic ballot, asked to be given a paper one.

“Such actions can confidently be called an attempt at double voting, and therefore an unlawful act for which liability is provided under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”

he said.

Photo: RusNews

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