Ella Pamfilova is the first woman to head the Central Election Commission, but her leadership style is far from what stereotypes about women’s preferences dictate. The chairman of the Central Election Commission, a graduate of the Moscow Energy Institute and a former electrical engineer, is not afraid of technology and actively implements it in elections.
1. “Mobile voter”
There was a time when absentee voting became the talk of the town. The word “carousel” was learned even abroad, without fully understanding what it means. But the Central Election Commission was well aware of the risks associated with absentee voting and took a decisive step: cancel it and put an end to the “fun”. Kvitochkas were replaced by Mobile Voter in 2017. Now citizens can add their name to the list at a convenient site within the district and even be assigned to sites abroad. “If in the aggregate of our achievements there was only one “mobile voter”, then the current composition of the Central Election Commission would justify its existence on this alone. I am proud to be the initiator of the idea of the “mobile voter”. Voter”, said Ella Pamfilova in an interview with RG “two years ago.
The head of the Central Election Commission is not afraid of technology and actively introduces it into the elections
2. Online voting
The online format for elections was first tested in September 2020 in two districts. The following year, training of the system was carried out throughout Russia, and then the regions began to gradually master the new product. This year, a record 24 regions voted on the federal platform, 18 of them for the first time. Ella Pamfilova declares herself in favor of the gradual introduction of remote electronic voting. “If we set that goal: full control and replacing traditional voting with SDRs, I assure you we could technically achieve it,” she said at a news conference. And she added: “But, thank God, there are no such tasks, they have never been put before us and there is no such goal. We act exclusively in the interests of our voters.”
3. QR codes on protocols
Machine-readable codes appeared in the protocols of district commissions in 2017. This technology allows you to protect final documents from errors and distortions. “And the speed of summing up voting results has increased: in 2016, at two in the morning, only 35% of the protocols were entered into the State Automated System “Elections”, and now – more than 90% “All data are in the public domain, journalists and observers can compare them with the site protocol,” said the head of the Central Election Commission in the same interview with RG. Now, according to her, “all district commissions where there are “Automated workstations use this technology.”
4. Digital services
Until recently, one could find out about the elections through the announcements of the district commissions and to check one’s name on the list one had to go there in advance. Now all this is available both on the CEC website and in the personal accounts of Russians in the State Services. The list of services is constantly growing, now there are already two dozen. Through the Gosuslugi portal you can collect signatures, find out the election results, submit applications for SDR, to vote at home, etc. The services also now have an environmental aspect: the PEC interactive workbook is now available. Once a heavy paper volume, it is now an electronic catalogue. The CEC is proud of its contribution to the protection of Russian forests.
5. GAS “Elections” – new version
The State Automated System (GAS) “Elections” is also being transformed, which collects and stores voting results. “At the same time, we are now creating a modern digital analogue, because everything has a deadline,” Ella Pamfilova said last week. During the presidential elections scheduled for March 2024, the new system will operate and the old one will remain “backed up” and fully available, she explained.
The Central Election Commission has many plans ahead for the digitalization of elections. For example, last year it was intended to develop new versions of the vote processing complexes (KOIP), but sanctions intervened. “This remains an open topic, very hot for me and close to my heart. I am sure that we will resolve this issue in the near future,” Ella Pamfilova said the other day.
Today the chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, celebrates her birthday. The Rossiyskaya Gazeta team congratulates Ella Alexandrovna on her birthday!
