Translated material
Ballots will be thrown into the ballot box
The Central Election Commission conceived a scientific and technological revolution
The era of high-tech in technological support for Russian elections may come by the federal election cycle of 2011-2012. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov told reporters yesterday that the relevant proposals prepared by his department have already been agreed upon with the Ministry of Mass Communications and Communications and have now been submitted for consideration to the Ministry of Finance.The documents contain proposals for the technical equipment of polling stations, transmission of voting results, as well as for organizing the expression of will abroad, in hard-to-reach and remote regions. In “regular” polling stations of the country, it is proposed to install modern means of electronic voting, both using a traditional paper ballot and without it. “New generation COIBs” will work with ballots - more reliable and cheaper.
Answering a question from a Vremya Novostei correspondent, Mr. Churov clarified that the currently used KOIBs (ballot processing complexes) cost about 86 thousand rubles. plus 30 thousand per year for operation. The new machines are significantly cheaper and, even in the event of a complete power outage, are capable of operating for the entire voting period in autonomous mode.
Also, Russians will be able to express their political will without ballots at all - using touch devices, where to select a specific candidate it will be enough to touch the screen with a finger. In this case, all votes will be counted automatically, and after the polling station is closed, the voting results will be instantly transmitted to the Internet, the territorial election commission and the Central Election Commission. “At the same time, the need to obtain a paper copy of the protocols disappears altogether, since the voting results instantly become available to everyone,” explained Mr. Churov.
Where paper protocols will have to be transported to territorial commissions the old-fashioned way, the movement of the vehicle with the documentation will be tracked from a satellite using a GLONASS beacon. This is proposed to be done for “public civilian control” and for the safety of the commission workers themselves: if something happens to a car on the road, rescuers will quickly find it using the beacon.
Finally, voting in hard-to-reach and remote places, as well as outside Russia, is planned to be done remotely - using the Internet and mobile communications. The Central Election Commission has been conducting relevant experiments since 2008. We would like to remind you that there are only 1% of such polling stations, but as a rule, about 10% of the country’s electoral budget is spent on their maintenance. The Central Election Commission hopes that new technologies will significantly reduce the cost of voting at this category of polling stations.
As for the overall financial support for the technological revolution of the electoral process, Vladimir Churov said that “preliminary calculations have been made, but it is incorrect to talk about specific figures before the government’s decision.” However, he assured those present that “we are not talking about fantastic, but quite acceptable amounts, especially in comparison with the cost of Western models of equipment.”
According to the preliminary plan, the government is offered a choice of three options for implementing the technological revolution. The first is to provide large cities and regional capitals with the necessary equipment by 2011. The second is to equip approximately 114-125 cities, where about 50% of the total number of voters in Russia live. And the third, “to the maximum” - equipping all polling stations in the country. Between the first and second options, according to Mr. Churov, the difference in implementation costs is small, and “the Central Election Commission has sympathy for the second option.”
The word is up to the government and the president: if they approve the scientific and technological revolution of the elections, it will be necessary to amend the legislation. The CEC has also prepared a list of regulations that need to be improved. In addition, legislators will have to consider how to ensure public oversight of the vote count in the absence of paper ballots.