Remote electronic voting in the view of Russian students: results of an empirical study

The purpose of the study is to present, based on the results of a survey of students of Russian universities, an expert assessment of the attitude of the younger generation to remote electronic voting and the representativeness of the results of this innovative form of expression of the will of voters. To conduct the research, empirical scientific methods were used - a survey and a questionnaire, which was attended by 211 undergraduate and graduate students from six domestic universities studying at political science, law, history and other faculties. The expert assessment method was also used, which was used to structure, summarize and interpret the results obtained. The answers of the respondents received by the authors of the study during the survey and student questionnaire were compared with the results of the VTSIOM monitoring study conducted in 2024 to identify the views of Russian citizens on their attitude to DEG and the prospects for its application in elections at all levels throughout the Russian Federation. The results of the comparative analysis are obtained. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the increment of the previously obtained results of surveys of key domestic sociological services and news agencies on the attitude of representatives of the younger generation to online voting. The practical significance lies in the author's proposals formulated based on the research results obtained, aimed at improving the online voting procedure and public monitoring of both the expression of the will of voters and the counting of votes of online voters in order to give the results of the DEG greater legitimacy in the eyes of the electoral corps. Conclusions are drawn about the need to improve the regulatory and legal regulation of the implementation of DEG and procedures for counting votes and making public the results of the expression of the will of voters.