Second express overview of civic observation on the single day of voting on September 11, 2022
General Statistics
The Golos movement is conducting short-term observation in 19 regions. Voting is monitored for its compliance with international and Russian standards for free expression of the will and is based on data from the regions shared by participants and organizers of voting, observers and media representatives, through various channels, including the hotline 8 800 500 54 62, the Map of Violations, media, Internet, social media, and messengers.
During the third day of voting, by 2 p.m. Moscow time on September 11, Golos had received 117 appeals to its hotline (the total hotline call time 7 hours and 12 minutes), and 176 reports to the Map of Violations and other telecom channels.
Throughout the election campaign, we received a total of 459 calls to the hotline (the total hotline call time 1 day, 6 hours and 10 minutes), and 1418 reports to the Map of Violations and other telecom channels.
The top five regions by the number of reports on possible violations submitted to the Violations Map on September 11:
- Moscow City: 59
- Moscow Oblast: 34
- Saint Petersburg: 26
- Krasnodar Krai: 21
- Altai Krai: 6
The regions submitting the most reports to the Map of Violations throughout the election campaign period currently are:
- Moscow City: 579
- Krasnodar Krai: 151
- Udmurt Republic: 88
- Moscow Oblast: 67
- Kirov Oblast: 65
Main Election Day trends
Restrictions on the rights of citizens to monitor the work of election commissions
Conflicts between members of commissions and civic observers continue at polling stations in different regions of the country. They are caused by concealment by commission members of valuable information about the voting process, prohibition for observers to access the documentation of election commissions to which, according to the law, observers have the right of access, prohibition to make photo and video shooting inside the voting premises, violation of voting procedures outside the premises, and restriction of other rights of candidates, observers and proxies.
Sometimes, higher commissions provoke these conflicts. For example, Sergei Kovalchuk, secretary of the regional election commission in Pskov Oblast, toured the polling stations and instructed the chairpersons of lower-level commissions to prevent candidates' proxies from taking photographs and videos, but the law on elections does not prohibit proxies from taking pictures at polling stations. In Pskov, the TEC banned proxies of Yabloko Pigalkin and Yanturayev to access polling stations allegedly because they were wanted by the police. According to the electoral legislation, the commission does not have the right to impose its own bans that are not stipulated by law.
In Udmurtia, according to the 7×7 TV-channel, a court expelled a CPRF (Communist Party) observer from polling station #2625 in Mozhga. The move came to satisfy the claim by the commission, which was unhappy that he had been "violating the secrecy of the vote" by taking photos and videos, "constantly moving around the premises" and "distracting PEC members from filling out documents with numerous questions and demands".
In Moscow, police tried to take the phone away from a female observer in Teply Stan. She was filming what was happening at PEC 2374. According to the observer, she was threatened with an article on disobedience to the police if she continued filming. Telegram channel of the municipal platform VyDvizhenie notes that yesterday at the same polling station a protocol on disobedience to police was filed on another observer for refusing to move to another chair.
In Lyubertsy, Moscow Oblast, a number of commissions hindered the attempts of candidates and observers to install fixed video cameras and conduct their own online broadcast from the polling stations. So, for example, commission 1529 prohibited candidates from installing video cameras, explaining that at municipal elections video recording is allegedly not allowed.
In some cases, election commissions "lose" their notifications of the intention to shoot or film. For example, at PEC 171 in Pskov Oblast, such a notice was lost (with a mark of receipt), after which the proxy was accused of illegal video recording at the polling station and an administrative offence report was filed.
There continue to be reports of PEC members denying access to voter lists on various pretexts (e.g., PEC 2287 at Lomonosovskiy TEC in Moscow; PEC 2577 at Krylatskoye TEC; PEC 1567 at Lyuberetsky District TEC; PEC 663 at Sterlitamak TEC in Bashkortostan; and PEC 1335 at Prokopyevsky Municipal District TEC in Kemerovo Oblast).
Saturday and Sunday are marked by many reports on members of election commissions not allowing observers to see the registers of mobile voting or to be present at home voting (St. Petersburg), failing to share the time and place of voting in timely manner or to provide other essential information, and creating other obstacles for observing this form of voting (St. Petersburg).
Mobile voting issues were reported on Sunday from Altai Krai, Krasnodar Krai, Voronezh, Moscow and Tver oblasts, and Moscow and St. Petersburg cities. Once again, some kind of "social security lists" were recorded at the polling stations, on which voters were added without their knowledge.
For example, observers from Barnaul wrote that voters had massively refused to apply for home voting. The Map of Violations received a report from an observer from polling station #154, where out of seven applications of one sheet of the register, six were rejected.
In Moscow, violations of home voting were registered in Preobrazhensky and Ostankinsky districts.
At PEC 372 in St. Petersburg, the first group left to home voting at 8.45 with 38 ballots for 34 voters, although there had been only about 10 applications on the register. In addition, the commission had several lists from social security with about 100 applications, according to deputy chair Hajibabayeva. A complaint was filed. In PEC 366, the visiting group was not given an excerpt from the register of applications for mobile voting, and observers were denied access to the register of mobile voting applications.
At the moment, the handling of mobile voting procedure causes the most complaints from observers.
Signs of possible falsifications
In Zavodsky district of Saratov, candidate for deputy of Saratov Regional Duma Nikolai Bondarenko identified three polling stations with record turnout, strikingly different from others. According to information shared with the CEC of RF by PEC 62, 34% of voters had cast their votes, or 798 people. Upon examination of the voter list books, it turned out that less than 400 people had voted there. In a similar situation, the candidate examined the voter lists at PECs 66 and 67. The turnout there appeared to have been also significantly exaggerated. Instead of 717 and 654 voters indicated in the statistics, the lists showed only 260 and about 200.
At PEC 277 in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, an observer found traces of tampering the safe bags after the night of September 10-11.
At PEC 3833 in Lyubertsy, Moscow Oblast, an observer recorded that some of the seals of stationary and mobile boxes had numbers smeared with a marker.
In Vladivostok, observers reported fraud at PECs 639, 644 and 650. Citizens arriving at the polling stations found that they had already voted, with signatures put in front of their names. At PEC 715, a voter was told that he had voted early. According to him, he did not fill out any applications and the handwriting on the document was not his. A similar fact was revealed in Krasnodar: there, at PEC 2057, a voter also saw the signatures in front of his last name, and the commission gave him the opportunity to vote in an additional list, thereby allowing double voting.
Campaigning on the Election Day
Throughout the three days of voting there were numerous reports from various districts of Moscow (Konkovo, Gagarinsky, Airport, Airport, Akademichesky, Akademichesky and more) of campaigning in the vicinity of and in the polling stations in favour of candidates from the informal coalition Moy Rayon and several other groups, such as Nashe Ostankino. According to voter reports, the workers and information stands of the local administrations were involved in the distribution of campaigning materials. Election commissions and the police did not react in any way to such reports.
In the Airport district on Saturday, September 10, hidden campaigning in favour of Moy Rayon candidates was held in the city square (Samed Vurgun Street 5) during the city day celebration. A newspaper with photos and texts of the United Russia candidates (Districts 1 and 3) was distributed, and gifts for children handed out.
Bribery and coercion of voters
The violation of the principles of free expression of the will continues: voters are bribed or intimidated.
One of the common bribery techniques in recent years has been the conclusion of contracts between candidates and voters for allegedly working as a campaigner or observer. For example, in Barnaul, in a single-mandate constituency #15, leaflets with the number 8913 2782367 were found today, offering to become "people's observers" for 30-40 minutes, although observers are usually sought for the whole day and their lists are submitted to the electoral commission in advance. Their tasks and payment for this "work" would be presented at the briefing on Titov street 1а. Importantly, rather than any observers, the employers were only interested in those who were registered in constituency #15.
People in Vladivostok are saying that voters in constituency #29 are being bribed in favour of one of the candidates: you need to take a photo of a completed ballot for a particular candidate, along with your passport, and send it to the client. The Election Commission of Primorsky Krai made a submission to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in this regard.
At polling station 2226 in Yaroslavl, drunken voters were driven to the polling station, and a man in a maroon (red) jacket was controlling them. According to reports from Yaroslavl, the price of a vote today is 1,000 roubles.
"Gratitude" for voting is promised to residents of the Perm Oblast (Kondratovo village). A statement was filed to the police. While a voter filed a police report, one "misappropriator" has already been established; there have already been similar complaints about this car. Also, an alert on the car was sent to traffic police.
Employees of state institutions of St. Petersburg do not get money, but simply require reporting on the voting. For example, management of the Youth Center of Vasileostrovsky District of St. Petersburg demanded from their subordinates to send photographic evidence of voting.
In Vladivostok, however, some also have to vote for free. For example, one voter at polling station 523 admitted to Vladivostok correspondent that he had been compelled by his superiors: "What superiors? I will not say, it was a state institution. The boss texted me, don't forget. To be honest, I wouldn't go if I could".
In Moscow, employees of public institution MFC are forced to vote. In Timiryazevsky district, they were ordered to support the candidates of United Russia and New People. With regard to those who do not vote "more serious measures will have to be taken, and qualification test initiated," says a screenshot of the message.
