Translated material
Successor number four
The Central Election Commission counted votes in the Duma and presidential elections
Today at the Central Election Commission the all-Russian training of the GAS “Elections” system is ending . On the penultimate day, journalists were allowed to participate in the training and were assured that neither a power outage nor hacker attacks would prevent the election commission from correctly counting votes in the federal elections of parliament in December 2007 and the presidency in March 2008. In the presidential elections, candidate number four was confidently in the lead.The headquarters of the GAS “Elections” system is located in the Central Election Commission in a room above the door of which it is written “GAS - do not enter!” Inside, two screens display the results of the training vote in real time. One of them promptly displays preliminary information about the number of voters, the number of ballots counted and the percentage received by each party. On the other - the same data, but for the presidential elections. There is also a column on the screens in which it is already calculated how many Duma mandates each party receives.
“If Russia was the first in the world to practice preliminary calculation of results online back in the presidential elections in March 2004, then data on the preliminary distribution of mandates in the Duma elections is a fundamental novelty,” explained Viktor Yashchenko, head of the Federal Center for Informatization under the Central Election Commission.
Four presidential candidates and four political parties participated in yesterday's virtual elections, which were designated by serial numbers. Journalists participating in the mock voting saw on the screen the names invented to designate the first three of the federal lists and regional groups - future deputies Khabibulin, Edinov, Sobashnikov.
According to “legend,” general voting began on Wednesday at 11 p.m. Moscow time. And yesterday, the final data from 100 thousand precinct commissions began to arrive in the control room of the State Automated System "Elections". After 60% of the votes were counted, presidential candidate number four won.
A control group, which includes representatives of political parties, will monitor the process on the day after the vote in December, as CEC member Valery Kryukov promised. Such control, in his opinion, will complement the technical perfection of the system. Representatives of the Central Election Commission are quite confident in the security of the State Automated System “Elections”. Even possible attacks by hackers on the Central Election Commission website will not affect the operation of the state automated system, since it is physically separated from the Internet, Valery Kryukov promised. He explained that the system is connected by fiber-optic communications and digital channels to the constituent entities of the federation, and to attack the State Automated System “Elections” one needs to “penetrate the fiber-optic cable through which information flows, and this is impossible.” Even if there is a power outage at the polling station for 40 minutes, said Viktor Yashchenko, the system will not allow you to lose voting data. He did not explain what would happen if the power supply could not be restored within these minutes. Let us recall that during the previous federal elections of 2003-2004, 1,800 attempts were recorded to penetrate the CEC website, and in March 2007, during the regional elections - about 900.
During the exercise, which took place from August 14 to 24, actions were rehearsed in conditions of technological failures, problems in communication channels and equipment failure. Moreover, in the future federal elections at polling stations in Moscow, Saratov and the city of Ensk, Saratov region, ballot processing complexes (KOIP) will also be used. And 25 electronic-touch voting systems will also be installed in Saratov. Yesterday at the Central Election Commission, journalists were allowed to vote for numbered candidates and promised that for not very smart citizens, a training model would be placed in front of the entrance to polling stations with such complexes.
They promise to continue developing the system after the elections. Even in the future, according to Valery Kryukov, the Central Election Commission will try to get away from traditional communication lines and use the GLONASS satellite navigation system.