Model of Electoral Behavior of a Resident of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation in Regional Elections of the Highest Official (2013–2022)

Being one of the strategically important regions for the development of the Russian Federation and a variety of aspects of its security, the Arctic represents a platform for defending the country’s national priorities. The nature of the policy pursued in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation determines the status of the state as an Arctic power. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the electoral preferences and to design the electoral model of the residents of the Russian Arctic in the elections of the highest official of the region in the period from 2013 to 2022. By means of multifactor comparative analysis using the clustering methodology, the author managed to determine such variables for the construction of the electoral model of a resident of the Russian Arctic zone as the level of electoral activity, voting for typical and atypical candidates and for the conditionally designated candidate “against all” as a marker of legitimate support for registered candidates and/or protest voting. The study revealed that, unlike the other federal subject’s voters, residents of the Russian Arctic take a more active part in the election of the head of the region, providing electoral support to the candidates of the “United Russia”, although in some cases atypical voting was observed, the percentage of which was insignificant. At the same time, the data obtained show that the number of invalid ballots is higher in the Arctic regions than in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Thus, the constructed model of electoral behavior of the resident of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the implementation of regional policy in the region allows taking into account not only quantitative, but also qualitative parameters of electoral preferences of the Arctic residents to predict the results of future elections.