Express review of the third voting day on 17 March

Based on the Golos report, we summarize the key trends observed during the third voting day.

On the Single Voting Day, Golos, the Movement in defense of voters' rights, received more than 500 complaints of electoral legislation violations.

Leaders on the “Map of Violations” for all three days of elections :

1. Moscow - 197

2. St. Petersburg - 162

3. Krasnodar region - 123

4. Ryazan region - 120

5. Moscow region - 114

MAIN TRENDS OF THE THIRD VOTING DAY

1. Mobilizing voters

On the last election day, Golos continued to receive reports about the pressure on public sector employees to increase turnout. In Moscow, a bot called “Dobrynya” was developed for this purpose. The bot monitored voting at the polling stations and e-voting, tracked user IDs and collected personal data. User reports provide strong evidence that public and semi-public organizations in Moscow collect information about employees who voted online. Lack of employee activity is being reprimanded while the lists of those who cast their ballots are collected by the management. This shows that in Moscow, e-voting is an effective tool for forcing employees of public and semi-public sector organizations to participate in elections.

2. "Noon against Putin" protest

Already on the first day of voting, we began to observe how people who advocated coming to the polling stations at 12:00 noon on March 17 were being arrested and harassed. Nevertheless, at noon on March 17, voters lined up at some polling stations in Russian regions. News from Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, St. Petersburg and Moscow indicated an influx of voters at that time.

3. Turnout anomalies and inconsistencies

The difference between the regions with the greatest and the smallest turnout was almost twofold. While in some regions, turnout exceeded 90%, in others it barely reached 50%. Such a tremendous difference is inexplicable and unnatural. Election experts report anomalies found in the CEC data that may indicate vote rigging.

4. Signs of possible fraud and mass ballot-stuffing

A voter from the Shalinsky district of the Chechen Republic reported an alarming case of coerced fraud to the Map of Violations. The territorial commission organized so-called carousel voting, requiring citizens to vote several times at different polling stations over three election days to ensure both turnout and the desired result.

In several regions, observers recorded ballot box stuffing.

5. Violence at polling stations, mass detentions and other violations of voters' rights

In Chisinau, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at the Russian embassy while voting in the presidential election was taking place. In Barnaul, a local resident tried to tear up the voters' book and was detained. In Krasnodar, a 13-year-old schoolgirl set fire to a tablecloth at polling station 2138. In Perm, a 64-year-old woman brought a large firecracker and set it off. As a result, she was hospitalized and 50 people were evacuated from the building.

In Moscow, a female voter was detained for laying flowers at a monument to the victims of political repression in February. In Cherepovets, a voter was detained for attempting to exit a polling station with his ballot, and in Moscow, a voter was detained for writing an anti-war slogan on the ballot. Reports of human rights activists being detained outside polling stations came from Ryazan. A resident of St. Petersburg was charged with discrediting the army because of a phrase she had written on her ballot paper. A voter from Kolomna was detained together with her one-and-a-half-year-old child after the baby scribbled on the ballot paper. In Ufa, a voter who tried to throw a photo of Alexei Navalny into the ballot box was detained.

A total of 74 people have already been detained in 17 cities during the presidential election in Russia. Kazan has the largest number of detainees, 29 people. According to OVD-Info, 19 people were detained in Moscow, seven in St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk and Ryazan had three detainees each, while one person was detained in Petrozavodsk, Ufa, Barnaul, Balakovo, Kostroma, Novokuibyshevsk, Cherepovets, Serpukhov, Kolomna, Kirov and Irkutsk.

There were reports from Odintsovo and Pushkino (Moscow region) of police officers blatantly violating ballot secrecy by examining which box the voters checked. In Bratsk, an unspeakable violation took place: a voter was detained and beaten up by the police, who threatened to cut off his finger. The police accused the victim of voting for the wrong candidate.

6. Obstruction of public control over elections

Based on the results of all three days of voting, one has to note a drastically increased pressure on voting members of precinct electoral commissions. In the past, it was mainly independent observers, media representatives and non-voting members of commissions who could be suspended from work and removed from the polling station. It is evident that after the status of the non-voting member had been abolished, given the overall neglect of the observation process by the political rivals of the incumbent president, the electoral system itself began a process of purging its ranks from members who don’t lack integrity.

7. Ballot counting violations

Observers from Pushkin and Mytishchi in the Moscow region report flagrant violations of their rights during ballot counting. The observers could not move freely, the commission members refused to show them the voter lists, the counting process could not be photographed or videotaped.