From Distrust to Legitimization: The Difficult Path of Digital Electoral Technologies, an Evidence from Russia

There are numerous issues surrounding digital technologies in elections: from ensuring the secrecy of voting to controlling the process of vote counting. The technology of the electoral blockchain, according to experts, does not solve the problem of achieving transparency and anonymity of online voting, therefore, existing technologies do not yet allow us to guarantee the indisputability of elections and avoid manipulation. At the same time, the advantages and opportunities brought by digital technologies are so obvious that, despite the existing problems, they are increasingly being used in elections. The author uses the comparative, normative and functional methods to analyze the usage of digital technologies in the electoral process, emphasizing the practice of electronic voting and remote electronic voting in the Russian Federation. The use of digital technologies, according to the author, entails legal, psychological and technical problems. However, the author concludes that it is possible to legitimize the use of digital technologies in elections if voters recognize the advantages of remote electronic voting and other digital innovations in the electoral process, and provided technological problems are solved.