Известия Саратовского университета. Новая серия: Серия «Экономика. Управление. Право» (Aug 2022)
Organizational features of multi-day voting in elections in Russia
Abstract
Introduction. Elections are the most important indicator of the socio-political development of the state, the criterion of the country’s democratic regime and its strategic course. Elections are one of the most mass processes, which is not limited to voting, it is a wide set of social relations that begins long before the appointment of elections and does not end with the fact that citizens vote. The introduction of multi-day voting introduced a large number of organizational features, the implementation of which affects the assessment of the election campaign as a whole. Theoretical analysis. The organizational features of multi-day voting include: the implementation of various forms of voting and the possibility of alternating them on one election day, ensuring the safety of ballots, video surveillance and video recording, features of counting votes, etc. All these electoral actions and procedures require the implementation of mandatory rules and are subject to the mechanism for implementing the fundamental principles of objective electoral law, which are based on the principles of objectivity, fairness and openness. Empirical analysis. The content of the organizational mechanism for conducting voting over several days is associated with the implementation of the rules for the use of stationary and portable boxes, ballot processing complexes, drawing up a list of voters, a register for voting outside the polling station, the implementation of an additional form of voting, moving ballots into safe packages, sequence of counting the votes of voters and determining the results of voting. The question arises: Can inaccuracies in the implementation of these features aff ect the voting results in a particular precinct? Results. The analysis of the content of the Federal Law “On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation” indicates the legal consolidation of the grounds for recognizing both voting and elections as invalid. Among such grounds, there are cases when violations committed during the conduct of voting or the establishment of voting results do not allow to reliably determine the results of the expression of the will of voters. However, the law does not specify which violations can be recognized as such. Practice shows that violations of one degree or another occur during the conduct of any elections and in any countries. Absolutely “pure” elections do not exist, since elections are a political struggle. Consolidation of actions, that aff ect or do not aff ect the expression of the will of voters, at the level of law will help reduce the number of provocative complaints that have little reason and contribute to the destabilization of the situation while organizing and conducting elections.
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