The Concept and Grounds for Classifying Distortions of the People's Will in Elections

Abstract

The article defines the distortion of the will of the voter and the distortion of the will of the people. The article provides for the grounds for classification of various kinds of distortions of the will of the people: depending on the order of the voting provided for by law (distortions made in the ordinary course of the voting or in special voting procedures); depending on the form of demonstrating the political choice of the voter in the elections (they can be on paper or electronic); depending on the use of different types of election documents and the degree of their involvement in the distortion (use of main, supplementary or ancillary election documents); depending on the culpability of acts (omissions to act) of actors involved in distortion of the will of the people in the elections (divided into guilty and innocent, including the assumption of error); depending on the method of violation of the principle of equality in elections (distortions in which 1) the votes are not counted; 2) the votes are not properly counted; 3) the votes are counted more than once; 4) votes of non-existent voters are counted); depending on the impact of the distortion commited during elections on the will of the people (direct and indirect distortions).