Introduction of electronic technologies into the Russian electoral process
The article analyzes some of the problems of introducing electronic technologies into the Russian electoral process in terms of historical and comparative methods. The data from an authentic online survey of 150 students of the Mari State University aged 17 to 24 are used to study the possibility of using remote voting methods based on the results of early elections of the Head of the Republic of Mari El in September 2017, elections of the President of the Russian Federation in March 2018 and additional election of deputies of the State Assembly of the Republic in September 2018. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the introduction of electronic technologies in our country, theoretically substantiate the need and feasibility of distance voting, to identify the attitude of voters to new voting methods, and to develop proposals for improving Russian legislation in this area. The scientific novelty of this article is that it is one of the first comprehensive studies of the problems of introducing electronic technologies into the Russian electoral process in terms of historical and comparative methods. The article suggests various ways of introducing electronic technologies into the voting process. For example, electronic voting using a special application that can be downloaded through the Play Market or the election commission website. In conclusion, the author proposes to improve Russian legislation, namely, Federal Law No. 67, the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses regarding settlement of relations related to remote electronic voting. In addition, the necessity of introducing into the legislative framework governing the issues of electronic digital signatures and establishing requirements for the technical characteristics of special voting devices are substantiated.