Repeated Voting at the Elections of the Russian Governors

Introduction. The elections of the governors traditionally arouse significant interest among voters. As with other personalized votes, the winning candidate is required to provide absolute, not relative, support from the electorate. However, the practice that has developed over the past decade demonstrates the extremely rare use of repeated voting to determine the results of gubernatorial elections, and the few examples are rather an exception to the general rule. The above circumstances indicate the relevance of studying this aspect of the regional electoral process. Materials and methods. When preparing the article, federal and regional legislation, materials of election campaigns were analyzed. The main methods used are technical-legal, formal-legal, comparative-legal. Results. Repeated voting in elections of heads of governors is one of the mechanisms that ensure the full implementation of the will of voters, guaranteeing the election of the candidate with the greatest electoral support. However, some aspects of the legislation on gubernatorial elections, in particular, the limited number of subjects for nominating candidates and the procedure for supporting the nomination of candidates by elected officials of local self-government, entails a reduction in competition and, as a consequence, the determination of the results of voting in one round. A few episodes of re-voting, as a rule, were observed in regions that have either complicated relations with the federal center or an internal political conflict. Conclusions. Based on the results of the study, the expediency of liberalizing the requirements for the nomination and registration of candidates for the position of governor is substantiated.

elections, repeat voting, second round, head of the federal subject of Russian, governor, head of the republic, protest vote