The column is against everyone and the voter turnout threshold. Turnout is strictly optional Minimum percentage of voter turnout for elections

Until 2006, elections in the Russian Federation were considered valid only if 20% of voters included in the lists participated in them at the regional level; in elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation - at least 25%; in the elections of the President of the Russian Federation - at least 50% of voters. To date, the minimum turnout threshold for all elections in the Russian Federation has been abolished.

The Law on the Election of the Head of the DPR does not specify a minimum threshold for voter turnout. This means that even if the number of voters is 1%, the elections will be recognized as valid.

On March 6, 1994, elections to the Lipetsk City Assembly of Representatives were held. But not a single deputy was elected to the municipal parliament. Due to low voter turnout, the elections were declared invalid in all 15 urban districts. Then the chairman of the regional election commission, Ivan Zhilyakov, blamed the parliamentary candidates themselves for the failure of the elections. In the Lipetskaya Gazeta he stated that “the people are confused by a huge number of contenders for power, without knowing anything specific about them. And the candidates themselves did nothing to make themselves known to voters.”

In 1996, the elections for governor of the Krasnodar Territory were declared invalid due to low turnout. It amounted to 43.29%. After the elections were declared invalid, deputies of the regional legislative assembly made changes to the law “On the election of the head of the regional administration.” The voter turnout rate was reduced from 50 to 25%.

In 1998, musician Sergei Troitsky ran for election to the State Duma, and received the most votes in the Lublin constituency. However, due to low voter turnout (less than 25%), the election results were canceled.

On December 9, 2001, elections of deputies to representative bodies of state power in the Russian Federation were held. Voter turnout in the Primorsky Territory in 20 of 39 districts was below the threshold of 25%, so it was not possible to form a new Duma.

In 2001, elections to the Moscow Regional Duma took place. In the cities of Vidnoye and Elektrostal, elections were canceled due to the presence of only one candidate each for a deputy mandate. In addition, due to low voter turnout, the elections were declared invalid in the Krasnogorsk (23.56%) and Lyubertsy (24.7%) districts. The number of voters in these constituencies did not reach the required 25%.

The next elections to the Petropavlovsk City Duma, held in 2002, were declared invalid due to low voter turnout. For elections to take place, 25% of voters must vote. The turnout then was 9-20% in various constituencies.

In 2002, elections for the President of the Republic were held in Serbia. Only 2.99 of 6.5 million voters went to the polls. This represents 45.5% of the republic's citizens with voting rights. According to Serbian law, if less than 50% of voters turn out to vote, it is declared invalid. Thus, the results of the presidential elections were annulled.

Presidential elections in Montenegro took place on February 9, 2003. Filip Vujanovic received an absolute majority of votes, but the elections were declared invalid because According to the electoral law, participation had to be at least 50%, and the turnout in the last elections was only 46.64%. The low turnout was attributed to bad weather, an opposition boycott, and general voter disillusionment with the fact that the presidency was seen as purely ceremonial.

After the repeated failed elections, there were two solutions to the problem: the abolition of the minimum required turnout and indirect election of the president in parliament. For the next elections in May 2003, the minimum turnout was abolished.

The 2003 presidential elections in Serbia did not take place. 38.5% of voters took part in the voting, according to representatives of the independent organization Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CESID), which monitors the elections. In order for the elections to be recognized as valid, the participation of more than 50% of voters is necessary.

During 2003, presidential elections in Serbia were twice declared invalid due to low voter turnout.

On March 27, 2005, elections of deputies to the city council were held in the capital of Transnistria, Tiraspol. At polling stations No. 4 and No. 26, the elections were declared invalid. Voter turnout then did not reach the required 50%. The Tiraspol Territorial Election Commission decided to re-hold the elections, which took place on June 26 and, unlike the previous ones, brought results.

On June 26, 2005, the first stage of elections of deputies of representative bodies of municipalities took place in the Republic of Bashkortostan. In 11 constituencies, elections were declared invalid due to low voter turnout. The 20 percent “bar” for voter turnout in these districts turned out to be insurmountable.

In 2005, four attempts were made to elect the mayor of the capital of Moldova. And all four times the elections were declared invalid due to low turnout. The threshold then was one third of the voters on the lists. The turnout did not even reach 20%, the elections were declared invalid.

In 2007, elections of deputies to the Kurgan Regional Duma were held in the Kurgan region of the Russian Federation. Viktor Grebenshchikov won, but he was not allowed to become a deputy by low voter turnout, due to which the elections were declared invalid.

The results of the popular referendum held on June 21 and 22, 2009 in Italy do not have legislative force. The reason for this was insufficient voter turnout. The referendum was dedicated to the reform of the current electoral law. To recognize the referendum as valid, it is necessary that the majority of eligible voters take part in the voting - that is, 50% + 1 voter. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which performs the functions of the election commission, only 16% of voters turned out for the elections.

The referendum on early presidential elections in Abkhazia, held on July 10, 2016, was declared invalid due to catastrophically low turnout. It made up 1.23% of the total number of voters. In total, 1,628 people out of almost 133 thousand took part in the voting. According to local law, a referendum is considered valid only if at least 50% of voters take part in the voting.

In October 2016, a referendum on migration quotas was held in Hungary. Although the vast majority voted against the introduction of a migration quota, turnout was too low for the vote to be valid, amounting to 40% of voters. According to Hungarian law, a voter turnout of 50% is required for the referendum to be recognized.

In 2016, elections to the People's Assembly of Gagauzia were held. The minimum turnout threshold for recognizing the elections as valid is one third of voters. Since the voter turnout percentage in Comrat district was 30.9%, in Ceadir-Lung district 32.6%, and in Vulcanesti district 31.2%, the elections in these districts were declared invalid.

The referendum on renaming Macedonia to North Macedonia, held on September 30, 2018, was declared invalid due to low turnout. Voter turnout was less than the 50% required to recognize the voting results. Only a third of citizens expressed their agreement or disagreement with changing the country's name. In total, 592 thousand people out of 1.8 million voters took part in the referendum. The Election Commission declared the vote invalid. However, more than 90% of those who voted were in favor of changing the name of the state.

1. Count against everyone

What happened before
Officially, the column “against all” appeared on ballot papers in
1993 elections to the State Duma
A year later, it was legalized in elections at all levels. In 1997, the State Duma approved a provision under which elections were considered invalid if the number of votes against everyone exceeded the number of votes cast for the favorite in the presidential race. In 2005, more than 14% of voters in 11 regions voted “against all” in regional elections. At the same time, regional authorities were allowed to independently choose whether to include the column on the ballot in regional and local elections.
In 2005, the head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, said that the “against all” column should be removed from the ballots. According to him, citizens used this column because they were too lazy to choose from a large list of candidates. Supporters of eliminating the form argued that it forces the authorities to spend additional money on repeat elections. In 2006, the State Duma voted to exclude the column. A Levada Center poll showed that 18% of voters considered the existence of the “against all” column justified – citizens were thus deprived of the opportunity to express their protest at the elections.

What now
In 2013, a VTsIOM poll showed that 43% of citizens supported the return of the “against all” column, including 34% of United Russia supporters. That same year, a bill on returning the uniform was introduced to the State Duma (http://www.interfax.ru/russia/352263). The initiative of the deputies was approved in 2014, the reform to return the column came into force in 2015. According to the final version, regional authorities can add a column “against all” on municipal elections. So far, only six subjects have taken advantage of this opportunity (http://cikrf.ru/news/relevant/2015/09/11/01.html): the Republics of Karelia and Sakha, Belgorod, Vologda, Kaluga and Tver regions.
//The EdRo Party (“Party of Crooks and Thieves”) understood, of course, that with such a crafty wording, the “Against All” column would not appear in the 2018 elections - after all, all power in the regions is in the hands of PZhiV. In Irkutsk, for example, the red governor Levchenko could not even “break through” the mayoral elections. As long as Putin is in power, the degradation of Russia will continue until its collapse into separate principalities.

2. Minimum turnout threshold
The minimum turnout threshold was abolished by Putin in 2006 (http://www.kprf.org/showthread.php?t=63), when people began to vote with their feet. The abolition of the threshold gave Putin, practically, a guarantee that he would remain in the kingdom for life - officials will always come to the elections and will always vote the way they should.

In 2013, a bill was prepared, according to which elections or a referendum will be recognized as valid if at least 50% of voters come to vote (http://m.ppt.ru/news/118335). The minimum turnout threshold is planned to be established for the elections of the President and deputies State Duma and for referendums. Now the Bill is in the archives // Four years have passed, and the prospects for the adoption of the bill are vague. Thanks to Putin. Let me remind voters of his “regalia”: The main corrupt official in the world in 2014,
Enemy of the Russian people, Enemy of the free press, etc., etc.
Published: 01/30/2018

There is already very little left until March 18, when presidential elections will be held throughout Russia. According to a survey of sociologists, more than 80% of respondents will go to vote at polling stations. This year there is no minimum turnout for the elections.

Previously, in Russia, at the legislative level, a minimum threshold for turnout in presidential or parliamentary elections was set. However, over time the law was changed.

What is the minimum voter turnout threshold for the 2018 presidential election?

With the onset of elections, many Russians are wondering if there is an article in Russian law on the minimum turnout of voters at polling stations. That is, can the elections be considered invalid if people take part in them? a small amount of citizens.

In order to know about this for sure, you need to carefully study the legislation of the Russian Federation since 2005, not to bypass 2006, in which changes occurred in the law on the right of citizens to participate in elections and referendums.

Until 2006, the law did provide for a minimum voter turnout for elections. In order for the election process to be considered valid, 50% or more of voters had to go to the polling stations. If such a number was not reached, the CEC had to declare a re-vote.

In 2006, the Russian President signed changes to the law on the right of citizens to vote in elections and referendums. After it came into force, the minimum voting threshold for presidential and parliamentary elections was abolished.

Why was the minimum voter turnout threshold for the presidential election canceled?

Now it is impossible to answer with certainty the question of why the minimum turnout threshold for presidential elections has been abolished in Russia since 2006. During the discussion of this bill, which was ready in 2005, many deputies called not to vote for it.

For example, the LDPR believed that the absence of a minimum threshold for voter turnout could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the government. This was also stated in the opposition, believing that there must be a 50% threshold that must be reached when voting.

According to experts, the lack of interest in the elections among the population forced the authorities to note the minimum threshold. Of course, people could be stimulated and ultimately achieve required quantity voters, but you need to spend money on this.

Elections are not interesting to Russians to this day. At least, this is indicated by the data that was released during the parliamentary and last presidential elections. Although this year sociologists are predicting a large turnout for the upcoming presidential elections.

On the eve of the start of the presidential campaign (a meeting of the Federation Council, at which a resolution on calling elections is scheduled to be adopted, is scheduled for Friday), 58% of Russians say they want to go to the polls, according to a December survey by Levada Center. The declared turnout consists of the answers “I will definitely vote” (28%) and “most likely I will vote” (30%), another 20% do not know whether they will vote, and 19% say with varying degrees of confidence that will not go to the polls. The highest turnout in the presidential elections in Russia was in 1991 (76.66%), the lowest in 2004 (64.38%), and in the elections in 2012 it was 65.34%.

How to count voters

The real turnout, as a rule, is lower than declared and, based on December data, can be 52–54%, says Levada Center director Lev Gudkov. To calculate the forecast, each category of answers is assigned its own coefficient, the sociologist explains: 1 – for the answer “I will definitely go”, 0.7 – “most likely I will vote” and 0.2 – “I don’t know whether I will vote or not.” Usually such a forecast is made towards the end of the campaign, but for now it is possible to predict the lowest turnout for the entire period of observation, Gudkov emphasizes: “The Crimea syndrome is ending, the feeling of uncertainty is growing, the material level is decreasing, the campaign itself is sluggish. All this reduces the willingness to go to the polls.” During the campaign, the expected turnout will increase, but “there are no prerequisites for it to go beyond 60%,” the sociologist sums up.

The turnout will be between 60 and 70%, argues VTsIOM General Director Valery Fedorov: “It’s difficult to navigate based on current data. Putin just announced his nomination, which means that people have just begun to think about the elections. The question is not their position, but whether they want to fix this position with action.” According to VTsIOM, at the end of March 2017, almost 70% of Russians were ready to come to the presidential elections (52% “definitely” and 17% “most likely”). In the Duma elections, there was no goal to increase turnout and it was 48%, he reminds: “This time it will be different, the Central Election Commission will work like mad so that everyone knows about the elections.”

The turnout may also be affected by the current problematic background - for example, the results of the Winter Olympics or new sanctions against Russia, Fedorov believes: “Theoretically, the turnout will be lower than in previous elections, because the electorate is getting younger, and young people don’t particularly like to go to the polls.”

The declared turnout can be high, especially considering the significance of the elections and socially approved answers, says political scientist Dmitry Badovsky: “We need to analyze in more detail the answer options, their dynamics from poll to poll, and values ​​in different electoral groups.” The coefficients for converting the declared turnout into the forecast grow as we get closer to the elections, the expert continues: “According to such rough calculations, the predicted turnout before the start of the active phase of the mobilization campaign is slightly less than 50%.”

The real measurement, which will show how successful the mobilization was, should take place in the first half of February - by this time the “I’ll definitely go” category should exceed 40%, Badovsky believes: “The overall projected turnout will reach 57–60% with the understanding that more There is time left to finish the campaign.”

Based on the declared turnout according to the Levada Center, out of 110 million voters, 64 million will come to the polling stations, but a quarter of them are people who give a socially approved answer, but will not go to the polls, says political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin. They must be subtracted from 64 million, but add 12 million people who will be among those who voted in the regions where the turnout will be “drawn,” Oreshkin believes. Thus, according to his calculations, 60 million voters, or 55%, will come to the elections, and he sees no reason for the turnout to exceed 60%.

How to increase turnout

They have long been collecting proposals from political strategists to increase turnout, says a person close to the presidential administration. The Kremlin’s concern is also related to the fact that due to the low turnout in some places there may be too much high percent voting for Vladimir Putin, he adds: “The majority believe that Putin will be elected without them and will not come to the polling stations. We need to work with such audiences; mobilization technologies will be used.”

At the same time, the task is to hold fair elections and carry out mobilization using legal methods, the interlocutor assures: there are many tricks that can increase turnout purely technologically - for example, clearing lists of dead souls: in some regions this is from 3 to 10% of voters. According to him, regions can hold referendums at their own discretion, but it was decided to abandon the lotteries that were tested in the gubernatorial elections.

The task of conducting an absolutely legitimate campaign is set very strictly, and this also applies to turnout, says a person at the Central Election Commission. According to him, the CEC will increase turnout through outreach work, and this was clearly indicated at all commission events. There is already a good information product, there will be active explanatory work, plus precinct commissions will work not 10 days, as before, but 30, which will give them more time, for example, to send out invitations to voters, the interlocutor adds.

When there is no problem with the election results, turnout becomes a problem, says political strategist Grigory Kazankov. It can be increased by introducing additional intrigue - for example, focusing on the fight for second place, the expert gives an example: “Or, say, those who come to vote for Ksenia Sobchak, if she had not existed, would not have come to the elections at all - this is a few more percent." Will be used and technological methods– from creating a festive mood to regional referendums, Kazankov believes: “But the task of the legitimacy of elections is more primary than turnout and results.”

“It is necessary for the president to represent the interests of the majority of the electorate, so turnout comparable to past campaigns is important,” says political scientist Andrei Kolyadin, citing many legitimate technological ways to increase it: “Door-to-door canvassing, professional or territorial mobilization, party mobilization “1 in 5.” "or "1 in 10" - when a party member brings five or 10 people to the polls. Election commissions will inform about the elections.” But the consequences of drying up turnout in previous elections may have an impact, adds Kolyadin: “For example, they dried up turnout in municipal elections in Moscow, and people who were shown that they were not needed in one election are difficult to lure into the next.”

The election campaign of Russian presidential candidates is in full swing. According to sociologists, this year the turnout at polling stations will be very high. However, few citizens know what the minimum turnout should be for the elections to be considered valid.

In the electoral process, not only the victory of a particular candidate in the election is important, but also voter turnout. The number of people who came to the polling stations indicates the interest of citizens in the elections and the exercise of their constitutional rights.

A high voter turnout in presidential elections indicates that citizens are ready to exercise their rights and choose the candidate they consider better than others.

In order for elections to be considered valid, a certain percentage of voter turnout was previously established. Until 2006, at least 50% of voters throughout the Russian Federation had to turn up at polling stations. Only in this case were the elections considered valid.

Later the law was changed. Experts believe that this happened due to the fact that turnout in Russia began to fall with each subsequent election. The reason for this is the decline in interest in the electoral process.

Be that as it may, in 2006 Vladimir Putin signed a law that removes the minimum turnout for elections at any level, including presidential ones. As of today, there is no certain number of participants in an election for it to be considered invalid.

In 2018, those citizens of the country who are not at their place of registration at the time of voting will be able to vote in the presidential elections in Russia. Experts assure that such an amendment to the law will increase the turnout of citizens at polling stations.

According to available data, during the last presidential election, many people wanted to vote, but were unable to because they were far from their permanent registration location. This year such voting will be possible.

Turnout for the Russian presidential elections in 2018 will be high

This year, sociologists predict very high interest in the elections. Thus, according to published data by VTsIOM, in mid-February more than 80% of surveyed citizens are ready to go to polling stations. In January, the percentage of active Russians was much lower.

According to the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, in some regions of Russia the turnout will be close to 100%. Such a high percentage may be possible in Tuva and Tyumen regions.