I’ve been getting a lot of letters from people who want to become observers at polling stations in the upcoming elections. That’s excellent: the absence of observers is the main dream of the Party of Crooks and Thieves. The less oversight there is, the more votes they get.
So, it is important to remember that observers may be representatives of parties participating in the elections and representatives of the media (and for that, you do not actually have to join a party or get a job with a media outlet). You can read more about the legal status of an observer in Article 30 of the law "On the Election of Deputies to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation". Let us assume that you do want to be an observer, but you are not a member of any political party and have no idea whom to contact. As far as I know today, there are several ways to sign up as an observer for the December elections: 1. Through the project "Citizen Observer" This is a joint project of Novaya Gazeta and the GOLOS Association (an independent Russian election-monitoring group). Its goal is to ensure maximum oversight of voting at 100 polling stations located in Moscow, the Moscow Region, and several regions of Central Russia, and then compare the data collected there with the voting results at other polling stations. Participants in the project are registered as observers representing political parties and media outlets. 2. Through the movement "Democratic Choice" Observers will be nominated by registered parties and by its own newspaper, Free Speech. 3. If one of the websites is not working, there is also a wonderful person, al**burov,** who personally assigns applicants to parties. You can sign up here. You can also sign up directly through the party that suits you best: "Yabloko" (via the website) With the other parties, you will have to get in touch through the local branch; you can find addresses at the following links: "A Just Russia" CPRF LDPR "Right Cause" "Patriots of Russia" Useful resources: The project "Map of Violations." This is a joint project of Gazeta.ru and the GOLOS Association. The website makes it very convenient to post information about violations. The project’s lawyers will prepare a complaint to the Central Election Commission and handle further legal support. You can also check out an interesting video presentation. Observer’s mascot in a precinct election commission Handbook for short-term observers in Russian elections A short list of violations If there are any election-monitoring projects I do not know about, write in the comments and we will add them. Thanks to alburov for finding useful links for this post.