The application developed by St Petersburg University tests successfully in the elections in the Leningrad Region

The application has been developed at the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University in cooperation with the Election Commission of the Leningrad Region. It is intended for internal and external observation of the electoral process.

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polling stations used the system: in the Kirishsky municipal district and the Sosnovoborsky city district of the Leningrad Region.

It could be used both through the Internet portal and through the mobile application. With the help of the ELORIS system, registered observers of precinct election commissions (PECs) sent appeals to higher election commissions and received answers to them. It should be noted that appeals could be sent both in the text format and in the visual format as a photo or video. Additionally, the heads of PECs received a convenient technical capability to inform the Territorial Election Commission (TEC) and the Election Commission of the Leningrad Region about the voter turnout on the election day itself.

‘In total, more than 80 heads of PECs and about 40 observers logged in the system. During the voting, the TEC and the Election Committee of the Leningrad Region received 20 appeals from observers – all of them were given timely answers and explanations. As noted by the developers and the first users, the ELORIS system had worked reliably and without technical failures,’ said Evgeny Pen, Executive Director of the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University.

For reference: in the spring of 2019, St Petersburg University and the Election Commission of the Leningrad Region signed a cooperation agreement. The parties agreed to work together on digital solutions for the electoral process in the region. Additionally, the agreement provides for cooperation in the field of educational, informational and research activities. Last August, the application was presented at the All-Russian exhibition ‘Vybory’ (‘Elections’) in the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.