vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #156 / Special reports / Reading article...

It was a hard day for Yelizaveta Verchik, the head of polling station 516 located in the Borodino movie theater. A restaurant took up the bulk of the foyer, and voters crowded in a four meter space, squeezing over to the ballot boxes placed under a staircase.

An old man complained that he only now realized he was obligated to vote for the district Duma as well as the krai Duma. Verchik looked at him and nodded. “It is the district commission’s fault. They could have warned citizens,” she said.

“Where is the Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting?” asked a bearded man with a guitar. “On the second floor,” Verchik said automatically. “You see, how I work here: People come to see a movie, there is a sect meeting upstairs. Here voters keep complaining.” Then she spotted a man heading out the door with voting papers. “Wait a minute,” she told him. “Why are you taking the papers out? I can not let you go with them.”

“I have the right,” he said.

“Please, dear, don’t take them away — I am responsible for them and the commission will count,” she nearly cried.

“I just want to find out who belongs to Lebed’s party, and then I’ll come back,” he said.

“You promise?”

“Here is the novelty in this election,” Verchik said. Polling stations were forced to keep tabs on who cast ballots, and officials will judge the electorate’s size and voting patterns. Verchik’s list includes 2,700 people.

By 11 a.m. 5 percent of them showed up and she was pleased: “It is a very lively place, and people are very active this time.”

Verchik will be paid 120,000 rubles ($20) for the day’s work, and was promised to be paid for the two previous elections she worked at as well.