What is the voter turnout in the elections? Bring back “Against All” and the minimum turnout threshold: is it necessary to reform the Russian electoral system? It turns out that they cannot punish for calls to refuse to vote

Measures have been developed aimed at increasing the legitimacy of elections in Russia. The corresponding bill prepared by the deputy Margarita Svergunova, submitted to the State Duma.

It is proposed to legislatively establish a minimum threshold for voter turnout - at least 50% of voters included in the voter lists for the elections of the President of the Russian Federation, State Duma deputies, as well as for elections to government bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. This indicator is planned to be taken into account when the elections are declared invalid. An exception is provided for elections to local government bodies.

Let us recall that previously elections were declared invalid if less than 20% of the number of voters included in the voter lists took part in them. At the same time, the specified minimum percentage could be increased for elections to federal bodies of state power, government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and reduced for elections of deputies to representative bodies of municipalities. The law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation allowed to provide that a minimum percentage of the number of voters for recognizing the elections of deputies of representative bodies of a municipal formation as valid is not established. Also, the minimum turnout threshold was in effect for the elections of the President of the Russian Federation, which were declared invalid if less than half of the voters included in the voter lists at the end of voting took part in them. For elections of State Duma Deputies, the voter turnout threshold was 25%. However, the corresponding norms were then excluded.

According to the author of the initiative, today the absence of a threshold for voter turnout during elections to government bodies calls into question the legitimacy of elected bodies elected in elections with the participation of less than half of the voters included in the voter lists.

Svergunova believes that the introduction of the proposed norms will make it possible to form government bodies taking into account the opinions of the majority of voters, which will give greater legitimacy to elected bodies, helping to strengthen power throughout the country as a whole. Also, the implementation of the bill will increase the responsibility of election commissions, in particular, in informing voters about elections, active suffrage, active citizenship, etc.

They became the product of active debate between the United Russia deputies who proposed them and the Central Election Commission. On the last day of the spring session of the State Duma, deputies in the first reading considered a bill amending the Law “On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation” and the Civil Procedure Code. The document envisaged the full restoration of early voting in elections and the introduction of new grounds for refusing to register candidates and deregistering them.

Thanks to the efforts of the Central Election Commission, the initiative of deputies for the second reading, which took place only in the fall, has seriously changed. As a result, early voting in the elections was finally abolished, but most importantly, the concept of a minimum turnout threshold disappeared from the electoral legislation at all levels.

With the entry into force of the amendments, any elections in the Russian Federation will be recognized as valid regardless of the percentage of citizens who voted. Even if only one person comes to the polling station on voting day. Until now, according to Russian laws, elections were considered valid if 20 percent participated in them in regional elections, at least 25 percent in federal parliamentary elections and at least 50 percent in presidential elections.

Supporters of the abolition of the threshold explained their position simply. In most countries, including democracies, there is no minimum turnout at all. As for Russia, CEC Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov emphasizes, we don’t have any particular problem with turnout.

At least in federal elections. The election of a president has never taken place with a turnout below 60 percent. And the population's interest in the Duma elections has always allowed us to overcome the 50 percent bar.

As for regional elections, citizens will be attracted by other methods. In particular, elections only based on party lists, followed by the nomination of a governor by the winning party. In addition, the Central Election Commission is confident that with the abolition of turnout at regional elections, the sword of Damocles will also disappear, declaring them invalid due to an insufficient number of voters. As you know, in recent years, the population’s interest in regional elections has become less and less. This often led to citizens being forced by entire enterprises to go to the polls or centrally vote using absentee ballots. Now such administrative coercion should also become a thing of the past.

At the same time, the responsibility of candidates and electoral associations for violating the legislation on countering extremist activities is increasing. Thus, already in the spring, a party may be denied registration of a list of candidates if, before or during the election campaign, one of its representatives on the list made calls and statements in public speeches that incited social, racial, national or religious hatred. Display of Nazi SS symbols will also be a reason for refusal of registration.

A citizen with an unexpunged or outstanding conviction on election day for crimes of an extremist nature, as well as those who have committed serious and especially serious crimes, will not be able to become a candidate in federal and regional elections.

They will be deregistered both for using an administrative resource and if it is discovered that voters are being bribed by an electoral association or its authorized representative.

Certain prohibitions also apply during the election campaign. They relate to counter-propaganda against opponents. Registered candidates and parties are prohibited from using airtime on radio and television for the purpose of campaigning against other candidates and parties, describing possible negative consequences if citizens elect a political rival, and generally disseminating information that creates a negative image of a competitor among voters.

“Propaganda” bans do not apply to this type of television and radio broadcasting, such as election debates. That is, in a face-to-face verbal confrontation with opponents, it is possible to challenge their positions. Even if a candidate or party refuses to participate in a debate, this does not mean that others should remain silent about the competitor in this debate.

In less than a quarter, the country will elect the President of the Russian Federation. The next elections are due to take place on March 18, 2018. It is worth finding out the conditions of the next elections, which change almost every year.

In 2017, an amendment to the law “On Presidential Elections” was adopted. The most important change is the elimination of absentee ballots. Now you can vote at any polling station by simply submitting an application. All the major changes were thought up to increase people's turnout in the 2018 elections.

Back in 2006, the electoral legislation abolished the turnout threshold. But previously, in order for elections to be recognized as valid, at least 50% of voters had to take part in them. So in 2018, elections will be considered valid even with low voter turnout.

The turnout threshold for the 2018 Russian presidential elections has been raised

Experts believe that due to new amendments to the law “On Presidential Elections,” which abolished absentee ballots, voter turnout will increase by 5 million. The new amendments abolish absentee ballots and include citizens in voter lists based on electronic applications, and also legislate the possibility of video surveillance at polling stations and simplify the work of election observers. In the last presidential election, 1,600,046 Russians voted using absentee ballots. But one can only imagine how many people really wanted to vote, but at the time of the elections they were not at their place of registration. At the same time, they did not want to get involved with absentee ballots, because in order to receive them, it takes a lot of time and effort. So, most likely, all these simplifications with “papers” will help many people cast their votes in the next elections.

But at the same time, many believe that voter turnout will still be very low and perhaps even lower than last year. After all, many people simply refuse to vote for their own reasons.

Experts also believe that the situation can be changed by improving conditions. Namely: we need to inform all Russians as much as possible, remove all bureaucratic barriers and try by all means to increase the accessibility of polling stations.

Counts “Against All” began to speak immediately after the cancellation. Few people know, but in Russia there is a political party “Against Everyone” officially registered by the Ministry of Justice, which appeared in 2012, but it did not achieve success in the federal and regional elections. Moreover, another candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation, Ksenia Sobchak, at the start of her election campaign, positioned herself precisely as a candidate “against everyone,” which was reflected in her campaign materials. Therefore, it is worth remembering why such a graph appeared and what semantic load it carried.

ALTERNATIVE TO ALL CANDIDATES

The “Against all” column can be considered a certain feature of the post-Soviet understanding of democracy, since such a column does not exist on the ballots of most countries in the world where elections are held. Perhaps this is due to the peculiarities of the formation of democratic procedures during the perestroika years, when the population for the first time could freely and openly elect deputies to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. At that time, one could simply cross out all the candidates from the ballot, which was a form of voting against all the candidates presented. As for Russia, for the first time it became possible to vote against all candidates in the elections to the State Duma in 1993. Then 4.22% of voters took advantage of this opportunity, two years later - only 2.91%. If you look at the statistics of presidential and State Duma elections from 1993 to 2004, you can see that the “Against all” column never received more than 5% of the votes, or even collected a negligible percentage. For example, in the Russian presidential elections in 2000, only 1.80% of voters ticked the box. It would be worth noting that at the beginning of the 2000s, Boris Nemtsov, Valeria Novodvorskaya and Lev Ponomarev campaigned for the “Against everyone” column, but this did not affect its popularity in any way.

At the same time, in the regional elections the situation was radically different. In 2004, during the elections for the head of the Kurganinsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, this column was chosen by more than 65% of voters, which is a kind of record; in 2005, in elections in 11 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, an average of 14.46% of voters voted against everyone. In the same year, a federal law was adopted that allowed regions to exclude the “Against all” column from their elections, but only Moscow took advantage of this right in the elections to the City Duma in December 2005. Six months later, on July 12, 2006, it was canceled everywhere.

The last time the question of returning the “Against All” column was raised at the state level was in 2011 at the suggestion of the leader of the A Just Russia party, Sergei Mironov, but the bill was never considered. However, in 2015, a law prepared by the State Duma of Russia came into force, which returned this column for municipal elections. So far, only the Kaluga, Tver, Belgorod and Vologda regions, as well as the Republic of Sakha and the Republic of Karelia have taken advantage of the right to add it. There are only two countries left in the world whose ballot papers contain the notorious column: Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. There is also one in the state of Nevada (it appeared there in 1976), but this is rather a separate legal precedent in the United States.

As we can see, the return of the “Against all” column to the federal level remains a controversial issue. Various opinion polls, including those conducted by VTsIOM, show that about 43% of citizens want to return it to the ballot (data from 2013). But experts are strongly against this: in their opinion, this column prevents the voter from forming his choice, it impedes the development of democratic systems, pushing the voter onto the path of voting for some “abstraction.” In fact, the “Against all” column is a rudiment of the post-perestroika system; it was necessary for the formation of political literacy and pluralism among the country’s population after decades of uncontested Soviet elections.

UPHOLSTERY "THRESHOLDS"

The minimum turnout threshold is much more common in the world than the “Against all” column, but each country has its own nuances. For example, in the UK, Canada, Spain and the USA there is no minimum turnout threshold, in France it is necessary to receive more than a quarter of the votes included in the voter lists, and in Turkey, Luxembourg, Greece, Argentina, Belgium and Australia, turnout at elections is mandatory and even penalties are applied to to those who ignore elections. Today, a minimum threshold of voter turnout is present in the countries of Latin America, the Baltics and Eastern Europe - Poland, Hungary, Croatia, etc.

In Russia, the minimum turnout threshold was abolished in 2006, along with the “Against all” column. Previously, elections were recognized as valid if more than 20% of voters came to the polling stations in regional elections, 25% in parliamentary elections and 50% in presidential elections. But if the column was mentioned from time to time, the turnout threshold attracted much less attention, since it was discussed only by a narrow circle of experts. There was no consensus. Some experts believe that a minimum turnout threshold is necessary because it is a kind of “filter” that keeps the institution of elections itself from degradation. Others recall that regional elections were often disrupted due to the minimum turnout threshold. For example, in Vladivostok, between 1994 and 2001, elections to the City Duma were disrupted 25 times, which not only led to legislative confusion, but also increased regional expenses for repeat electoral procedures.

There were attempts to restore the minimum turnout threshold at least twice – in 2013 and 2015. What is noteworthy is that both times the initiative came from deputies of the LDPR faction. It was proposed to set a turnout threshold of 50% for elections to the State Duma and elections of the President of Russia, but the bill was not adopted. At the same time, it is worth saying that the turnout in federal elections after 2006 did not fall below 50%: in 2007 in the State Duma elections the turnout was 63.71%, in 2011 - 60.21%, and only in 2016 it “sank” to 47.88%. The same trend is with the presidential elections: in 2008 the turnout was 69.81%, in 2012 – 65.34%. As predicted, this year the voter turnout will be at least 70%.

AIR SHAKE

Yavlinsky’s statement about the return of the “Against all” column and the minimum turnout threshold should be considered nothing more than ordinary election promises for a public that has little knowledge of the essence of the issue under discussion. This type also includes Grudinin’s statement about the president’s salary, Zhirinovsky’s statement that he would give Ksenia Sobchak a passport for a trip to the USA, etc.

The return of the “Against all” column and the minimum turnout threshold at the federal level today is hardly possible and hardly necessary. For more than 10 years since the repeal of both points of the electoral legislation, a fairly stable political system has developed in Russia. Citizens have already learned to set priorities, casting their vote for the political force in which they are confident, and choosing the candidate with whom they have certain hopes for the future. Today, with the help of the Central Election Commission, Russians realize the importance of the election process itself, realizing that every vote cast can decide the fate of their candidate, and therefore they need to go to the polls. Even in the United States, whose foreign policy is built on upholding democratic values ​​in the world, every presidential election is accompanied by campaign videos featuring top-tier media stars, reminding ordinary Americans how important it is to come to the polls and vote for one candidate or another. We believe that today Russia is moving in the right direction in this regard.