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Novikova K.Yu. [International legislation in the field of «remote electronic voting»] Political Science and Technology, 2023, Vol. 3, Iss. 3 Available at: https://politicjournal.ru/PDF/07PK323.pdf (in Russian).

International legislation in the field of «remote electronic voting»

Novikova Karina Yurʹevna
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
E-mail: novikova.ka1999@gmail.com

Abstract. This article examines the problem of international legislation in the field of digitalization of the electoral process. We are talking about the legal regulation of the remote electronic voting system. The relevance of this issue is explained by the fact that today there is a tendency to intensify the process of introducing digital technologies into the daily political life of society. This is especially true for electoral systems, which are radically changing and being rebuilt under their influence. Such qualitative transformations require appropriate legal formalization both at the level of national States and at the level of the international community. The existence of a developed international regulatory framework in this area greatly facilitates the task for national governments, preventing possible mistakes and misconceptions. To date, the only document officially regulating the use of the remote electronic voting system are the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, an updated version of which was published in 2017. The author attempts a normative analysis of the original version of the document from 2004 in order to identify its problem areas, which revealed the need for the adoption of new recommendations. One of the main problems, from the author’s point of view, is the declarative nature of the document, the vagueness of its wording and the lack of specific mechanisms for the application of many provisions. In the Recommendations of 2017, many of the shortcomings of the previous version were taken into account and revised: (1) the official definition of remote electronic voting has been approved, which allows us to understand what exactly can be considered as a remote electronic voting system; (2) separate mechanisms of remote electronic voting functioning (identification, authentication, re-voting, etc.) have been developed and specified; (3) practical tips on system operation (international certification, programming languages) have been proposed. Despite this, the updated document still remains far from ideal, which requires additional legislative work in this direction.

Keywords: remote electronic voting; stages of development of electronic voting; legal framework; Recommendations of the Council of Europe; international legislation; digitalization; recommendations

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