For the first time in Russia, the remote electronic voting system was applied during the elections to the Moscow City Duma on September 8. The experiment was conducted in three districts of the capital, where voters could cast votes remotely from their electronic devices. For this, the townspeople had to register in advance on the portal of the Moscow City Hall and personally confirm their intention at the IFC.

The system has gained approval among international observers. For example, Pierre-Emmanuel Tomann, a geopolitical expert from France, called Russia “the laboratory of digital democracy” and emphasized that “there is an inevitable turn to digital processes all over the world.”

One of the developers of the experiment is Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of the Golos Voter Rights Movement. He is one of the keepers of the key to the cipher, with the help of which the results are summed up with this form of expression of will. Melkonyants attended the procedure for connecting seven cipher keys to enter a system showing the results of electronic voting.

- Gregory, tell us what the “Voice” movement is?

- We are an expert organization for election observation. I personally - Member of the Scientific and Expert Council at the CEC. The "voice" in these elections worked in 39 regions. We sent observers to polling stations. In particular, Moscow actively worked on polling stations, interacted with the public headquarters for election observation, which was headed by Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow. Until the final stage of the election, we worked all summer on electronic voting in the capital. Golos was part of a technical working group that was involved in consulting developers of this system.

- In Moscow this year, two experiments were held at once: electronic voting and digital polling stations.

- Yes. Digital polling stations were created where nonresident voters, not Muscovites, could vote on the by-election of State Duma deputies and governors in the regions. Voters had to submit an application in advance and show up at polling station on polling day. There were electronic displays. A member of the election commission gave the person a barcode. A voter applied it to the screen, and his regional newsletter appeared on it. Data was sent directly to where he is a voter.

Convenient, but it still requires a personal presence.” But Muscovites could vote without appearing on the site, sitting in the country.

- Yes, remote electronic voting allows you to vote remotely without coming to the polling station. It was only necessary to register in advance through the portal, in this case, mos.ru. On the day of voting, the townspeople simply had to go to the “Personal Account”, receive an electronic newsletter, vote - and these results were automatically stored in the database. That is, it is an opportunity literally from anywhere in the world where there is Internet access to participate in elections. Moreover, remotely it was even possible to apply for participation in these elections.

- How many voters participated in electronic voting?

- About 11 thousand were registered, and about 10 thousand voters took part as a result . In fact, it is unprecedented. Because electronic voting in the world is an extremely rare service.

- Even where there are electronic governments?

- Many countries, unfortunately, cannot pull such innovations financially and technologically. The leading country in this regard is Estonia. But there people have electronic passports, which makes it easier to solve this problem.

- How does electronic voting take into account the secret of expression of will?

- Any electronic system is always a compromise between secret voting and transparency. On the one hand, the voter must be sure that no one will know how he voted, because this is the basic principle of suffrage. On the other hand, there should be transparency so that voters can make sure that everything is taken into account correctly. And this balance between secrecy and verifiability has not yet been found anywhere in the world. Therefore, I am glad that a discussion has been launched in Russia on how electronic voting should look.

- And the voter himself can make sure that his vote is counted correctly?

- There is a debate as to whether the voter should be given such an opportunity. So far, the developers have refused that after the vote the citizen had the opportunity to get his encrypted voice back in anonymous form, as a code that can be checked using a special service. There is a fear that someone may be forced to report on how he voted and demand, for example, this code.

- What could be the vulnerability of these technologies?

- For example, if we talk about electronic sites with remote voting, then they are physically connected to the Internet, and there are certain risks associated with hacker attacks. But we see that this time no visible interventions occurred. In addition, the main problem with remote voting is to make sure that it was that voter who entered the “cabinet”, and not someone else.

  • Grigory Melkonyants - rival of the Voice movement

In Russia, next year we will begin an experiment on the issuance of electronic passports. The voter may be able to log in using his electronic passport. This will be some kind of digital key that allows you to identify a person. In the future, there may be some biometric verification methods. Now Rostelecom in Russia is testing a system that, for example, allows you to receive banking services using your biometric data when your voice and face are recorded.

- Before the vote, there were public tests. Did they improve the system?

- Venediktov challenged and said that he would pay the fee to someone who would open the code. The vulnerability of the encryption key, which allowed to know the results in advance, was revealed by the cryptographer from France Pierreck Godrey. As a result, the developers improved the encryption code - they increased it from 256 bits to 1024 bits. No one in the world has hacked such a cipher for a limited time.

- International observers praised the qualifications of people working in electronic sites. Will it be difficult to train personnel if this technology is applied everywhere?

- People need to be trained. I believe that in the future it is even necessary to form a corps of electronic observers. This should be a new generation of such specialists. In addition, it is necessary to obtain transparent tools with which observers can monitor the progress of electronic voting.

- How do you assess the potential of electronic voting in Russia?

- Today, the country is booming for such selective technologies. After these elections, the authorities will have a choice in which technologies to invest budget money. The Central Election Commission is now very carefully looking at all these technologies. I think that the future of electronic voting will depend on the results of the experiment in Moscow: how many people took part, were there any problems, were any vulnerabilities identified. It is possible that in the federal elections of 2021 to the State Duma, or in the presidential elections in the 24th year, we will see elements of this system already in action.

- And on the part of voters, will these technologies gain popularity?

- In my opinion, all these technologies can attract new voters: young people, those who go to the country, are on vacation, on a business trip, and those who are just too lazy to go to their polling station. We are interested in the fact that as many people as possible take part in the formation of government bodies in order to increase the legitimacy of the elections, the significance and responsibility of the people themselves for those whom they have elected to power.