Golos submitted suggestions to the Central Election Commission of Russia on improving voting for people with temporary residence registration

Suggestions of the Golos Movement aimed at improving transparency and openness of the voting process for people with temporary residence registration and preventing voting irregularities

On October 11, 2017, the Central Election Commission of Russia approved in principle the draft resolution “On the Procedure of submitting applications for including voters in the presidential elections on electoral rolls at the place of their temporary residence.” The approval specifies that the revised draft of the resolution should be submitted for the Commission’s approval no later than October 18, 2017.

We believe that it’s best not to rush the approval of this document, which requires quality revisions. Nonetheless we suggest that a number of essential changes, related to the more extensive publication of voter data, are made to the document in question (“The Procedure of submitting application for including voters in the presidential election on electoral rolls at the place of their temporary residence,” hereinafter - the Procedure). 

Publication of information about voters who cast their votes at the place of temporary residence is necessary so that election participants can oversee this process and detect violations. In the end, it’s aimed at promoting trust in the new voting procedure and elections as a whole.

To this end, such publications should be easy to use and timely.

In particular, the candidates, political parties, other public organizations and media should in a timely manner receive information about which polling stations will see a large number of voters, so as to pay special attention to these electoral precincts.

Since the electoral legislation and Administrative Procedure Rules envision that voting results at a specific polling station can only be contested within 10 days after the District Election Commission has made its decision on the election results, all of the data on voting at the place of temporary residence should be published before this deadline runs out, so that the candidates can take it into account in their claims.

In addition to this, since the new procedure of voting at the place of temporary residence is introduced in place of absentee voter certificates, it would be advisable to provide the voters with extensive information to build trust in the new procedure. It bears reminding that when the voters cast their ballots using the absentee voter certificates, the protocols of District Election Commissions included information about the number of voters who received such absentee certificates, and on the number of voters who cast their ballots using the absentee certificates. This data was then included in the summary tables of the Territorial Election Commissions, Regional Election Commissions, and the Central Election Commission, and all of this information was available from the moment that it was input into the Vybory state automated system.

Unfortunately, the protocols do not include information on the number of voters who submitted applications to vote at the place of temporary residence and actually voted at the place of temporary residence (and this is regulated by law). Nonetheless, this information has to be published, and as soon after the election day as possible.

The procedure of voting at the place of temporary residence as it was implemented at the regional elections of September 10, 2017, brought to light the following problems.

• Information on the number of voters who applied to cast their ballots at the place of temporary residence 45 to 5 days before the election date was only published on the webpages of the polling stations. There was no such information from the Territorial Election Commissions and regional ones, and no summary table was published either. In such format, this information was impossible to use to oversee the process of electoral migration.
• Additionally, this information was published at night (Moscow time), on Friday, September 8, when it was already September 9 in the Sakhalin Region. As a result, those engaged in election control had no time to evaluate the published information and to act on it.
• Information about the number of voters who submitted special applications with stamps 4 to 0 days before the election day fared a little better: in addition to the publications at the polling station webpages, summary data for the regions was also available. However, there was no summary information from the Territorial Election Commissions, and no summary table published.
• Information on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with special applications hasn’t been published to this day (October 15), even though it’s been over a month since the election day. Information on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with applications submitted 45-5 days before the election day simply cannot be published, because the Procedure, approved by the Central Commission of Russia, did not envision the count of such voters at polling stations.
• Publication of data on voters added to the registry for inclusion in the electoral roll is currently given in the “name, patronymic and first letter of last name” format, and this gives few opportunities for any oversight. At the very least, this information should be augmented with information about the primary polling station, at which the voter was originally registered at the place of residence.
• Analysis of published data has demonstrated that there was no balance between the voters included in electoral rolls and removed from them: in almost all of the regions, the number of voters in registries for inclusion in electoral rolls was below the number of voters in the registries for removal from electoral rolls. According to the explanations provided by the representatives of the Central Election Commission, this happened because in their applications some of the voters stated the address of residence that differed from their address in the Vybory state automated system.
• Additionally, the numbers that were voiced by the chairwoman of the Central Election Commission on the morning of September 10 differ from the numbers derived by summing up the data from the Commission’s web portal, and so it is still unclear what numbers are correct.

If the same thing happens during presidential elections, it will seriosly undermine the credibility of the new voting procedure at the place of temporary residence and of elections as a whole.

In connection with this, Golos Movement proposes the following.

1. It’s necessary to publish information:

A)  on voters who submit applications 45-5 days before the election day:

• on the number of voters added to the registry for inclusion in electoral rolls (without the voters, not taken into account in accordance with item 2.8 of the Procedure);
• on the number of voters added to the registry for removal from electoral rolls;
• on the number of voters added to the registry for inclusion in electoral rolls, but not taken into account in accordance with item 2.8 of the Procedure;
• on the number of voters added to the registries for removal from electoral rolls at two different polling stations (taking into account the experience of regional elections);
• on the number of voters who voted in accordance with applications submitted 45-5 days prior to election day (see item 3 for more details);

B) on voters who submit applications 4-0 days prior to election day (special applications with a stamp):

• on the number of voters who submitted special applications;
• on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with special applications.

2. All information specified in item 1 has to be published:

• at the webpage of every polling station;
• at the webpage of every Territorial Election Commission as a summary table that includes data from all polling stations;
• at the webpage of each constituent of the Russian Federation as a summary table that includes data from all the Territorial Election Commissions;
• at the site of the Central Election Commission as a summary table that includes data from all the constituents of the Russian Federation.

3. In accordance with the draft Procedure, all information specified in item 1 (except in subitem 5) is available to the system of election commissions. To calculate and publish data, specified in subitem 5 (on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with applications filed 45-5 days prior to the election day), the Procedure should include the requirement for the District Election Commissions to count this number and to reflect it in a separate document (since the relevant line is not envisioned in the District Election Commission protocols).

4. Item 5.2 of the draft Procedure envisions publication of information from the registries of voters who submitted applications for inclusion in electoral rolls at the place of their temporary residence in the format: name, patronymic and first letter of the last name. We believe that it’s absolutely essential that the number of the polling station and the region, where the said voter was included in the electoral roll according to the place of residence, is published along with the names.

5. Publication deadlines

5.1. In accordance with item 2.14 of the draft Procedure, all of the information, except that, which was submitted via the Single Portal for State and Municipal Services, is added to the database of application processing no later than 9am local time three days prior to the election day (Wednesday). Information contained in the applications submitted online through the Single Portal for State and Municipal Services, is added to the database of application processing no later than 9am Moscow time two days prior to election day (Thursday).

We believe that the information submitted through the Single Portal should also be added to the database of application processing no later than Wednesday morning. Since the applications have to be made no later than Monday, it should be more than enough time until Wednesday. 

In this way, the compilation of the database for application processing should be completed no later than Wednesday morning. In view of this, the deadline for publication of final data should be set for Thursday, no later than 4pm Moscow time (when Friday begins in the Far Eastern regions).

5.2. In the context of voting process oversight, it would advisable to publish intermediate data on the number of voters who submitted applications to vote at the place of temporary residence. This can be done through a simplified procedure. For example, it would be published on Territorial Election Commission pages, specifying the District Election Commissions where more than 50 voters expressed their wish for such voting procedure. Such publications could be done 2-3 times throughout the campaign, and for the last time - five or four days prior to election day (on Monday or Tuesday).

5.3. Information on the number of voters who submitted special applications should be published no later than the start of voting, and include data for specific polling stations.

5.4. Information on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with applications submitted 45-5 days prior to election day and on the number of voters who cast their ballots in accordance with special applications has to be published before the deadline for contesting election results at the polling station, which means no later than the eighth day after the election.

Golos Movement Council

October 15, 2017