Voter turnout in the 2024 elections has surpassed that of the previous ballot in 2018
More than 73% of Russia’s 112.3 million voters had cast their ballots in the nation’s presidential elections by the time polling stations closed on Sunday, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) has reported. This election’s voter turnout is a historic record for modern Russia.
Voting was held over three days, between March 15 and 17, the first time Russia has arranged this. Polling stations were opened from 8am local time to 8pm on each of the three days. Voters in 29 out of 89 Russia’s regions, including Moscow – the nation’s most populous region, incorporating the capital city – also had an opportunity to vote online, in another first.
According to the state online-voting monitoring portal, more than 4.7 million people applied for the right to cast their ballot online and ultimately over 90% did so. The 2024 election is also the first in which voters in four new Russian regions participated – Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
The highest turnout at polling stations was reported in the regions of Chechnya (96%), Tuva (almost 90%) and Donetsk People’s Republic (88.17%). Low turnouts were recorded in the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions and in Russia’s Republic of Karelia, where it was about 45%.
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Abroad, a total of 230 polling stations provided an opportunity for Russians living abroad to cast their ballots. According to the Russian foreign ministry, more than 125,000 Russians used this facility.
Some sporadic attempts at disrupting the work of the polling stations occurred. About 30 of these were attempts to set ballot boxes on fire or to pour a dyed liquid into the box to destroy the votes in it, Russian media reported. According to the CEC, a total of 214 ballots were irreversibly damaged in those attacks. CEC head Ella Pamfilova also said that more than 280 hacking attacks on the online voting system have been repelled.