Early voting. Shredder instead of ballot box?

Author: Roman Udot, since 2013 – co-chairman of the ‘Golos’ movement board // Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal

Observers often observe the so-called manipulation of ‘dosrochka’ – early voting – re-introduced about two years ago. The recent elections gave a good reason to claim that the procedure of early voting requires serious improvement.

On April 15, 2014, the Constitutional Court declared the voter’s constitutional right of early voting.

Election commissions took rather little time to remember all the tricks they used before May 2010, when the early voting was canceled due to massive fraud and coercive vote.

The fact is that the representatives of candidates and civil society hardly controls the course of early voting. The early voting lasts for a few days, therefore it requires multiplication of observers’ energy and time spent for observation and they do not enjoy abundance of one or another.

The election commissions immediately took advantage of such circumstances in cases when they had a task to distort the will of citizens.

Though it is difficult to identify fraud during the early voting, observers manage to collect irrefutable evidence.

We have a video featuring multiple voting of one and the same person on early voting day.

A week ago a scandal erupted in Volokolamsk, Moscow region, where the envelopes containing early voting ballots were exposed; it is hard to deny the fact the envelopes were tampered.

However, the most stunning and cynical incident took place in Morozovka village, where yesterday the elections were held [at the PEC No. 181 the vote count has been completed today around noon, and then recounted, moreover, not excluding the incidents – Ed.].

In Morozovka, the envelope containing early voting ballots was sealed with scotch right over the commission members’ signatures. The law also provisions that the envelopes should not be sealed with tape in the elections held in municipal PECs. The envelopes were sealed with scotch later, when they were transferred from the designated early voting premises to another facility of municipal PEC.

At the polling station No. 184, 66 ballots out of 90 were invalidated due to the lack of details on them and 12 – due to some allegations that the envelopes were tampered. In other polling stations some signs of envelopes containing early voting ballots being tampered were as well reported.

The envelope containing early voting ballots; it was sealed with scotch by taping it over the signatures of the commission members. The Elections of 02.14.2016, Morozovsky, Leningrad Region. Photo: D. Grigoreva

There is every reason to believe that there the envelopes containing early voting ballots were not just opened but, moreover, these ballots were destroyed using a shredder and fire.

We have to admit that the procedure of exercising citizens’ right for early voting was completely discredited. And it is not all about the cases of substitution and destruction of ballots. After all, even the possibility of a commission member to open the envelope and find out how this or that citizen has voted refutes the free will. None of the dependent civil servants, employees of large enterprises, pensioners depending on social benefits, who are now bused for early voting will not dare to disobey the ‘advice’ of superiors if they have the slightest suspicion that the envelope would be opened.

Considering all these recent cases of revelations in Leningrad and Moscow regions, the voters are no longer suspicious but they are entirely sure that it might be repeated, as well as that the malicious commissions' members are not punished.

If the government wants the election results to carry at least some weight in the eyes of citizens, that all early votes are not automatically perceived as massive ‘ballot stuffing’ in favour of the henchmen of administration and to ensure that the elected bodies enjoy respect and authority – the very procedure of early voting and supervision of it must be changed immediately.

It is delicate to challenge the citizens’ right to cast their vote on early voting day, but what is the purport of such the right, if the ballot ends up in the shredder or fire?

The signs that envelopes were tampered, moreover, they were taped with scotch