Remote electronic voting in public digital space: an analysis of tonality and underlying narratives
https://doi.org/10.26425/2658-347X-2025-8-4-64-73
Abstract
An analysis of public perception of remote electronic voting in Russia through the prism of social media discourse has been carried out. The purpose of the study is to identify the dominant narratives and tone of statements about remote electronic voting in order to identify key social and political barriers to its legitimization. The study is based on a content analysis of 711 user comments from the VK social network over a 12-month period. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of tonality was used, as well as the identification of narratives using artificial intelligence tools (ChatGPT-5). According to the study results, it has been concluded that negative perception of remote electronic voting prevails in social networks (62.3% of comments). The key negative narratives associate remote electronic voting with a tool of falsification (31.4%), administrative pressure (28.8%), and general distrust of government (26.3%). Positive ratings (7.2%) emphasize convenience, calculation speed, and technological advancement. The low efficiency of official communication has been revealed, characterized by mass replication of the same type of content without feedback. The main barrier to remote electronic voting legitimation lies not in the technological, but in the social and political plane, due to the general low level of institutional trust. Overcoming this barrier requires comprehensive measures, including not only technological improvement, but also active targeted communication with society.
Keywords
Remote electronic voting,
public opinion,
social media,
legitimacy,
institutional trust,
electoral innovations,
narrative analysis,
sentiment analysis
Supporting agencies: The research was carried out at the expense of the grant from the Russian Science Foundation as part of a scientific project No. 24-28-01061 “Innovation Management in State Electoral Policy”.
About the Author
I. A. Lavrov
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ivan A. Lavrov - Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Senior Researcher at the Yadov Scientific Center for Digital Sociology
Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Lavrov I.A. Remote electronic voting in public digital space: an analysis of tonality and underlying narratives. Digital Sociology. 2025;8(4):64-73. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26425/2658-347X-2025-8-4-64-73
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