Ukrainians may be allowed to vote by mail and online

The Verkhovna Rada proposes to introduce additional electoral voting mechanisms in Ukraine: Internet voting and mail voting. The relevant bill was registered on March 6 in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine under № 10129.

The arguments of the initiators of the bill are quite simple: millions of Ukrainians are forced to live not at the place of registration (migrants, migrant workers, etc.). And such stay outside the place of residence during the voting may be the reason for deprivation or restriction of their right to participate in elections, which contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine.

At the same time, it is noted that in world practice, there are several ways of ensuring the exercise of active voters' rights outside their place of permanent or temporary stay. These are: - use of absentee certificates (Russia); - early voting (United Kingdom, US, Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden, Russia, Belarus); - voting at the place of residence (Hungary, USA, Russia, Belarus); - voting by mail (United Kingdom, Hungary, USA, France); - Internet voting (USA, France). In Ukrainian electoral law, only two of the following methods are known: absentee voting and voters' voting at their place of residence.

As it is stated in the explanatory note, in order to take advantage of the right to vote in elections by e-mail or online, the person must personally apply to the state register of voters in the 30 days prior to the day of voting - either with a written application for voting by mail, or to submit an electronic application for the Internet voting.

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