ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF DIGITALIZATION OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Introduction. Digitalization of the electoral process is one of the most important areas of ensuring the effectiveness of public administration in the field of ensuring transparency and accessibility of elections, all-Ukrainian and local referendums by state and local public administration bodies, including those specially created for holding elections or referendums. Ensuring the effective application of the organizational and legal mechanism for digitalizing the electoral process is of important theoretical and practical importance, especially given the need to hold elections in the near future after the end of the war and the abolition of the legal regime of martial law.

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to reveal the main areas of determining the organizational and legal principles of digitalizing the electoral process in Ukraine, including the example of using the Unified Information and Analytical System "Elections" and the State Register of Voters in the electoral process.

Materials and methods. The materials of the study are: 1) regulatory and legal support for the digitalization of the electoral process; 2) works of scientists who studied the issue of introducing electronic voting in Ukraine, foreign experience in implementing electronic voting.

In the process of conducting the research, the following scientific methods were used: empirical method (provided an opportunity to collect the necessary data to study the issues of implementing electronic voting); observation (allowed us to process the works of scientists on determining the organizational and legal principles of digitizing the electoral process); logical generalization of results (provided an opportunity to formulate conclusions).

Results. The scientific article reveals the features of the implementation of electronic voting in Ukraine, it is indicated that partially the corresponding organizational and legal mechanism has been implemented, both at the level of program regulatory documents, individual regulatory and legal acts, and at the level of individual information and telecommunication systems. In particular, at the moment the State Register of Voters and the Information and Analytical System "Elections" are operating, which have been restored after a temporary suspension of work since 2022, and from December 2025 it is planned to implement the information and communication system "All-Ukrainian Referendum" as a component of the Unified Information and Analytical System "Elections" by modernizing it. It is planned to introduce Internet voting, machine voting, and postal voting in the form of an experiment or pilot project.

Discussion. In further scientific research, it is proposed to focus on areas of improving legislation regarding the organizational and institutional implementation of electronic voting.