LEGAL PROBLEMS OF ELECTRONIC (DIGITAL) ELECTIONS

Abstract

In the article in the loving memory of Professor V. I. Fadeev, the spotlight is given to the contemporary information technologies in the electoral process and the need for adequate legal regulation in the conditions of the current trend towards digitalization of the economy (digital economy) and society as a whole. This trend did not appear out of nowhere. For a long time the State Automated System “Vybory”, based on the use of various software products and developing in terms of content and functional application, as well as machines, mechanisms and technologies, partially lifting the need for routine manual labor, have been in use. The movement towards digital economy is likely to push the processes of digitalization of elections. On 8 September 2019 the country will hold for the first time a remote electronic voting at three polling stations in Moscow. However, the digitalization of such a political process as elections, which affect various interests of large groups of citizens, cannot be fast and take place outside the legal field created by the right to vote. A democratic reform of Russia’s electoral law will be required.