Blockchain data on Moscow’s remote electronic voting was removed from open access for the first time

Blockchain data on Moscow’s remote electronic voting was removed from open access for the first time

For the first time, blockchain data on Moscow’s electronic voting cannot be viewed or downloaded for analysis, analysts of remote electronic voting (REV) told Verstka.

“For the first time since electronic voting has been held in Moscow, the ability to view transactions or download them has been cut off. In previous years, this made it possible to build graphs showing how a candidate’s percentages depended on time. Now those options have been shut down,” remote electronic voting (REV) expert Pyotr Zhizhin told Verstka.

At the same time, he notes that the data physically exists. But while previously it was published on the internet, now it was available only on special computers at observation stations, Zhizhin says.

In one chat devoted to monitoring REV, a user wrote that he was denied the opportunity to download the dataset. He has not yet responded to Verstka’s questions, but Zhizhin assumes that the observer was refused at one of those stations.

Another REV analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, explained to Verstka what the blockchain data looks like from the inside.

“There is a system activity log, and there, for example, the first line looks like ‘a voter in the Kolomensky district received a ballot,’ the second says ‘a voter in the Kolomensky district cast a ballot.’ And there are several million such lines. Previously, you could download [this data] and, based on timing, do some analysis. Understand whether there are any spikes by voting time, whether there are any correlations. Now they simply do not provide this system activity log,” the analyst says.

It is also impossible simply to view this data without downloading it, although previously there were no such problems in Moscow, he says. Another analyst also anonymously confirmed to Verstka that this year the option to export from the blockchain was removed.

“They left the turnout chart: at such-and-such minute, so many ballots were issued, so many accepted. That is, the transactions themselves stopped being available to observers and enthusiasts not only for download, but also for viewing,” he says.

🩵Earlier, Russian media, citing Moscow City Election Commission data, reported that as of the evening of September 20, according to the results of electronic voting in the capital, United Russia was leading with 52.6% (more than 1.754 million votes). The Communist Party came next with 10.6% (almost 353,500).

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