Stop the steal, rock the vote: Meduza explains the debate about the legitimacy of Moscow’s online elections

Moscow's Public Election Monitoring Committee is auditing the results of local remote electronic voting (DEG) during Russia's recent State Duma elections. The review (not to be confused with a formal recount that carries legal weight) is a rare response to fraud allegations from opposition candidates who lost narrowly after electronic votes were added to the final results. The monitoring committee has defended the elections' legitimacy and hopes an audit will raise confidence in electronic voting, which federal officials plan to expand in future elections. The effort, however, is unlikely to persuade opposition politicians and experts in blockchain technology (which is the basis for Russia's DEG system) who say online voting is a "black box" that the authorities' control completely. Since the polls closed in Moscow, mathematicians, political scientists, and economists have debated the merits of election fraud allegations. Meduza breaks down these arguments. Original Article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/09/29/stop-the-steal-rock-the-vote