Remote Electronic Voting in Russia and Abroad: Problems and Prospects of Development

Introduction. Intense implementation of the information technologies into the socio-political relationships broadens the opportunities of the citizens to participate in management of the state affairs, and creates conditions for forming a qualitatively new level of civil activity of population. Nowadays, remote electronic voting (REV) is one of the mechanisms aimed to improve the electoral process, therefore it is an object of great interest for both the scholars studying the electoral technologies and voters themselves. The aim of the research is to identify and analyse the problems arising during implementation of the remote electronic voting systems in Russia and foreign countries for elaborating the appropriate efficient solutions, as well as to evaluate the prospects of development of this innovative trend.

Materials and Methods. In the frame of the research, a combination of philosophical, general scientific and specific scientific methods was used.

Results. A comprehensive analysis of legal regulation of remote electronic voting in Russia and abroad was carried out, along with studying its advantages and disadvantages. Proposals on improving REV further implementation to foster increase of trust in its results were elaborated, which included development of a mechanism ensuring legally binding power of this method of voters’ will expression. Moreover, an efficient method of REV process public control was offered. On the whole, advantages of REV over its disadvantages were substantiated, compared to the traditional paper ballot voting system. However, conclusion was drawn about possibility of making REV efficient only on condition of electoral system overcoming legal, organisational and technical challenges to ensure the principles of suffrage during e-voting.

Discussion and Conclusion. The issues of remote electronic voting implementation in Russia require close attention of the state and society. It would be relevant to accelerate improvement of legal regulation of these social relationships based on the experience already gained by the foreign countries. The theoretical provisions formulated in the article can be used in further scientific research on this topic.

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