Elistians gave polar assessments of the importance of participating in the vote.

Voters in Elista expressed opposing opinions on the significance of participating in the vote. According to the election commission, turnout in Kalmykia exceeded 39%.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on the first day of voting, there were many people at the polling stations in Elista who came to vote, residents said. According to the Kalmykia election commission, turnout on September 18 exceeded 21%.

Elista resident Mark told a correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" that he did not go to the polling station on September 18 and 19, and does not know if he will go today. "It all depends on work," he explained.

As for the significance of participating in the vote, according to Mark, it means "nothing at all" to him.

On the contrary, a resident of the capital of Kalmykia, Tseren, stated that by participating in the vote, he "fulfilled his civic duty". The man explained to the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" that he voted yesterday, September 19.

The election commission reported a turnout of 39.31%

According to the Kalmykia election commission, in the first two days of voting, turnout in the republic was "more than 38%", and this morning exceeded 39%.

"As of 10:00 AM [MSK], the turnout was 39.31% of the number of voters in the district," - the election commission reported on its page on VKontakte.

No reports of violations during the voting in Kalmykia had been received by 1:15 PM MSK on September 20, according to data from the "Observing Together" project. The project is positioned as an "independent platform for monitoring the 2026 elections". "We publish data on election commissions and violations," the annotation states. Information is transmitted to the project authors by users on Telegram via a bot. "Caucasian Knot" considers it needing confirmation and does not regard information from users as reports of violations.

Recall that in 2021, in Kalmykia, 39.52% of voters voted for "United Russia" in the State Duma elections, 25.97% for CPRF, 12.23% for "New People", and 5.86% for "Fair Russia". Meanwhile, in Elista, CPRF led in the elections: 28.95% of voters voted for this party, while 26.66% voted for "United Russia".

Analysts surveyed by "Caucasian Knot" noted at that time that voting in Kalmykia was essentially protest voting, influenced by a surge in protest activity after the appointment of Dmitry Trapeznikov as head of the Elista administration in 2019.

Materials on the election campaign are collected by "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Elections-2026: where will the protest go?".