Ballot-stuffing reported in Russia’s Belgorod as early voting begins in some regions

Teachers at a school in the Russian city of Belgorod were pressured into casting ballots on behalf of other people on the first day of early voting for Russia’s upcoming elections, the local outlet Pepel Belgorod reported.

According to Pepel Belgorod, administrators at School No. 29 called teachers on Sunday morning and urged them to come in between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Each teacher was allegedly handed the ballots of two people they did not know and told to vote for the United Russia party and for Alexander Shuvaev, the acting governor of Belgorod region.

The school grounds contain two polling stations. Early voting in Belgorod is scheduled to run from 13 to 17 September at 183 polling stations across the region.

Russia’s Central Election Commission authorised early voting this year in regions under martial law or with an elevated security alert, including the Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Voronezh, Krasnodar and Rostov regions, as well as the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Early voting began in the Voronezh region on 9 September. There, unidentified women reportedly went from apartment to apartment carrying a ballot box, inviting residents to vote on the spot in their stairwells.