Smart Voting (Russia)

Smart Voting (Russian: Умное голосование, tr. umnoye golosovaniye) is a tactical voting strategy put forward by the team of Alexei Navalny with the aim of depriving the United Russia party of votes in regional and federal elections. The goal of "Smart Voting" is to consolidate the votes of those who oppose United Russia.[1][2]

Not to be confused with Project Vote Smart.

Smart Voting
Умное голосование
Available inRussia
Founder(s)Anti-Corruption Foundation
URLvotesmart.appspot.com

History

On November 28, 2018, Alexei Navalny announced the launch of the Smart Voting project. Initially, the system was mainly aimed at depriving the nominees from the politically dominant United Russia party of their victory in the elections to the post of Governor of St. Petersburg and the Moscow City Duma on September 8, 2019. Navalny explained the strategy as follows (translated from Russian): “The parties themselves cannot agree and nominate a single candidate against United Russia. But we can agree on this. We are different, but we have one policy - we are against the monopoly of United Russia. Everything else is mathematics. If we all act smartly and vote for the strongest candidate, he will win, and United Russia will lose".[3]

According to a research paper by Russian political analysts Ivan Bolshakov and Vladimir Perevalov, Navalny’s Smart voting, on average, improved the results of opposition candidates by 5.6% in last September’s Moscow City Council elections. While Smart voting played a decisive role in the victory of several candidates, it deprived of victory approximately the same number of opposition representatives.[4][5]

References
  1. CNN, Mary Ilyushina. "Russia's regional elections pose serious test for pro-Kremlin party". CNN. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  2. "With 'Smart Voting,' Russian Opposition Takes Aim At Putin's Party". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  3. "Навальный запустил проект "Умное голосование". Он должен объединить оппозицию, чтобы победить "Единую Россию" в регионах". Новая газета.
  4. Ivan Bol’shakov, Vladimir Perevalov. "Consolidation or Protest? "Smart Voting" in Moscow Elections" (PDF). The Journal of Political Theory, Political Philosophy and Sociology of Politics Politeia. 2020, 96:1, pp. 50-73 (in Russian). doi:10.30570/2078-5089-2020-96-1-50-73. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  5. Ivan Bolshakov, Vladimir Perevalov. "Assessing the Effectiveness of "Smart Voting" Strategy: A Discussion of Analytical Approaches". Electoral Politics. 2020, 3:1. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
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