Politics            Elections and Their Consequences    14 February 2023


   In the previous two years, I actively participated in the electoral
   process as an independent observer.  I have always been fond of this
   form of civic activism, since, unlike picketing and other nonsense, I
   felt real benefit from it.  In total, I observed five times:
   in Ozyory, Yekaterinburg, Rybinsk, Pereslavl-Zalessky, and Lyubertsy.

   The local electoral commission, where the voting process took place,
   was located in the village of Tokaryovo, which belongs
   to the Lyubertsy urban district.  This time, I broke my own record:
   they started to hate me not immediately upon entering the building
   but after ten to fifteen minutes.  I discovered signs of tampering on
   the envelopes containing the early voting ballots, after which
   the election commission's room transformed from an ordinary classroom
   into a lively snake pit.

   The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that I wrote
   a complaint for every "sneeze" of the election commission, so after
   a while, they didn't even consider me a human being anymore.  I
   remember when a United Russia candidate appeared, who, instead
   of assisting in eliminating violations, politely and courteously
   cursed me several times, photographed my observer's direction
   (the chairwoman showed it to her, now I have an issue with her
   because of this) and then left the room.

   The candidate promised to complain about me to the police, which she
   did after her disappearance from the election commission's premises.
   After some time, a criminal investigation officer visited my polling
   station, detained me, and began an interrogation.  I wasn't
   in the mood for this fellow at all: I was trying to send a complaint
   to the territorial election commission.  After all, signs
   of tampering were found on the envelopes, something had to be done.

   Apparently, he was conducting the interrogation for a reason: he was
   writing everything down on paper for me to sign later.  I had
   no intention of doing this, of course-I thought: therefore, I decided
   to try to escape from the police uncle since, in my absence,
   the election commission could do whatever it pleased.  First, I
   checked how the officer would react to my antics: I asked if he would
   mind if I took a selfie with him.  He was, of course, against it:
   threatened that such antics could lead to a case being filed against
   me.  What case, I never really understood.

   Intimidations of this sort have absolutely no effect on me, so I took
   a selfie with him and immediately published it on my Telegram
   channel.  The officer was outraged by such audacity, but nothing
   happened: no consequences, at least none that I felt.  And what could
   they charge me with for photographing a person who is performing his
   duties?  Unclear.  After that, I realized that the police uncle posed
   no threat to me, and I decided to make myself scarce.

   The operative had already finished writing my explanations for me
   by that point (he was, by the way, quite surprised to learn that I
   worked at "Yandex" at the time) and offered me the paper to sign.  I
   kindly refused his offer, thereby disappointing him once again.  I
   remember how he was then irritated, saying something like, "Why did I
   write all this then?"  I honestly replied that I didn't know and took
   the opportunity to ask whether I was still detained.  The operative
   answered that I was not detained.  As a law-abiding and totally
   not detained citizen, I took the liberty to leave the company
   of the policeman and return to the polling station.  Curtain.

   I had received the observer's appointment from the Communist Party,
   and in the morning, my associate delivered a special video camera
   to the polling station that broadcasted everything that happened
   there on the internet.  I had to seriously struggle with
   the obstinate head of the electoral commission, who insisted that
   filming was illegal.  Of course, it was legal.  After filing
   a complaint, the chairwoman and other commission members stopped
   protesting and accepted that the video camera would be there all
   morning, day, and even evening.  Thanks to this camera, by the way, I
   managed to have dinner with a calm soul and a clear conscience: I
   just connected to the live stream, put my smartphone next
   to the plate, and while eating, carefully watched what was happening
   at the polling station.

   The most unpleasant part of the observation during this election
   happened in the evening when the polling station had already closed,
   and the vote-counting process began.  At this time, obstructing
   the execution of photo and video shooting at the polling station is
   unacceptable: if during the day video shooting can theoretically be
   forbidden under the pretext of "violating the secrecy of the vote,"
   after the closing of the polling station and the counting of votes,
   there can be no reason for the ban, especially since the law clearly
   states that shooting by observers during counting is allowed.
   But the law is one thing, and people are another: not everyone may
   like being filmed, especially in the context of such a delicate
   process.

   One of the fake observers, as soon as the vote counting began,
   approached the camera and blocked the view with his back.  I asked
   him several times to step aside to avoid hindering video recording,
   but he did not heed my requests.  So I decided to record him with my
   smartphone's video camera, asking him to explain his refusal to move
   away from the camera: he clearly didn't like this at all, grabbed my
   phone and twisted my arms.  Things could have ended in a brawl,
   but the "observer" was timely distracted by the chairwoman, and I
   managed to break free.

   I hastily left the polling station premises, as the emerging threat
   to my health required my immediate response.  In the building was
   the very same criminal investigation officer to whom I now had
   to report the crime.  The "observer" realized his wrongdoing and,
   during the process of me writing a statement to the police, begged me
   to return to the polling station and not complain about him.  Then I
   made it clear to him that one must be responsible for their actions
   and that I would not withdraw the complaint.  After that, the fellow
   could not hold back and left the building.  Perhaps his nerves gave
   in.  Who knows.

   After filing the complaint, I returned to the polling station
   and continued to observe the vote count.  Eventually, I was handed
   a copy of the final protocol with the correct figures but improperly
   authenticated.  I could have filed a complaint then, but after
   the incident that had occurred, I had absolutely no energy
   for anything more than simply leaving the building of the polling
   station.  As at some other elections, the chairwoman, accompanied
   by her entourage, said goodbye to me in a sarcastic manner,
   expressing hope that we would never meet again.  "We'll meet
   in court," I thought to myself, but I didn't have the strength
   to argue with her anymore.  I collected all the equipment
   and documentation, and then left the school building where
   the electoral commission was located.

   I asked one of my observer friends, who were observing nearby,
   to give me a lift to the local party branch.  I didn't have to wait
   long, about ten to fifteen minutes; I spent all that time in perfect
   solitude with my thoughts under the dim light of a lantern, located
   on a neighbouring street a few dozen metres from the school building.
   At the party branch, I handed over a copy of the final protocol,
   and then, out of sporting interest, I went to the territorial
   electoral commission and observed for some time how representatives
   from the electoral commissions were coming in from all over the city
   with the final figures on paper.

   Around two in the morning, I returned to the hotel and finally
   allowed my body to embrace the arms of Morpheus after twenty-one
   hours of active wakefulness.  Around ten or eleven o'clock
   in the morning, I hobbled to the nearest railway station and returned
   by suburban trains with one transfer to Ozyory.  I decided to adhere
   to my good tradition of suing the electoral commission after
   the elections, so the next stage was the preparation and submission
   of an administrative lawsuit to the Lyubertsy City Court.

   Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to personally
   participate in the court proceedings, so it took place without me.
   Although the court refused to satisfy my demands stated
   in the lawsuit, I will still fight on: I'll look for a lawyer and go
   for an appeal.





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