Elections and Other Tales

Russia is going to have elections in March of 2024. They are in the constitution but also in elections in an authoritarian space. Elections in these spaces legitimize what sometimes has legitimacy outside this space.

Other countries that have held elections to claim they were democratic were the Republic of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The USSR also had elections. So here is what they are doing. To increase the numbers, they are going all electronic. For the record, I favor anything that makes voting more accessible, such as…mail ballots. Electronic ballots do have issues. Especially where everything is centralized. So here you go:

Before the presidential elections, Russian authorities began testing online voting throughout Russia

Four months before the presidential elections, test electronic voting started in all regions of Russia except Moscow, although the Central Election Commission had previously said that remote voting (RV) would be used in the presidential elections only in 30 regions.

Details. Test voting will last from November 15 to 17. More than 3.8 million people signed up to take part. Some of these users are probably state employees who are forced to participate in a test vote. In St. Petersburg, this was required of the teacher, and in Kamchatka, special points were awarded for participation.