Remote electronic voting in public digital space: an analysis of tonality and underlying narratives

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.