A resident of Hot Key demanded through the court to annul the election results at the polling station.

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Valentina Shostak from Hot Key filed an administrative lawsuit in court complaining about gross violations during the vote counting at one of the polling stations, demanding that the voting results there be declared invalid.

Resident of Hot Key Valentina Shostak filed an administrative lawsuit in the Hot Key City Court against the territorial election commission (TEC) of Hot Key (a copy of the lawsuit is available to the "Caucasian Knot"). The observer points to gross violations during the vote counting and obstruction of her lawful activities at the polling station, demanding that the election results be declared invalid.

"On Teacher's Day, October 5, the court held a preliminary hearing and decided to involve the members of the precinct election commission, all of whom work at the local school No. 3," - said Valentina Shostak to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" on October 6.

"The observer's statement has been accepted for consideration by Judge Popov. On October 12, the court will consider Valentina Shostak's statement on the merits," - reported to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" an employee of the court office of the Hot Key City Court.

According to the administrative lawsuit, on September 20, 2026, during the elections for deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Valentina Shostak voted at polling station No. 1001, located in Hot Key at 70 Kondratieva Street in the building of a furniture factory.

The ballot for the single-member district accidentally remained in my passport, which I discovered only after leaving the voting room.

She was issued two ballots: for the federal and for the single-member districts. However, she only dropped the ballot for the federal district into the stationary ballot box, while the ballot for the single-member district was accidentally left with her. "The ballot for the single-member district accidentally remained in my passport, which I discovered only after leaving the voting room. Later, upon reviewing the official data on the "GAS Elections" portal, I found that the number of ballots at polling station No. 1001 for the single-member district contained in the stationary boxes completely matches the number of ballots issued to voters in the voting room (1092 pcs.)," - stated Shostak in her lawsuit.

If my unused ballot was counted as "voted", this indicates a gross violation of the vote counting procedure.

The plaintiff emphasizes that since her ballot was not physically in the ballot box, the data in the final protocol is falsified and distorted. "If my unused ballot was counted as 'voted', this indicates a gross violation of the vote counting procedure, namely Article 68 of Federal Law No. 67 'On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation'," - stated the observer.

In her lawsuit, Shostak requests: to recognize the actions of the TEC of Hot Key as illegal, expressed in the incorrect counting of the voting results, to declare the voting results at polling station No. 1001 invalid, and to make the corresponding changes in the summary tables of the TEC of Hot Key and the TEC of Prikuban in Krasnodar (district election commission No. 51).

On October 5, a preliminary hearing on Shostak's lawsuit against the TEC took place in the Hot Key City Court. According to the plaintiff, the presiding judge decided to involve the chairperson of the precinct election commission and all members of the PEC in the case. The only exception was commission member Grigorieva. She was not involved, as she was the only one to submit a dissenting opinion to the protocol of the voting results.

Valentina Shostak drew attention to the composition of the precinct commission and the date of the court hearing. "All the commission members who did not allow me to monitor are teachers from Hot Key School No. 3. And it is very indicative that the preliminary court took place on October 5, Teacher's Day. This is my 'gift' to them for their 'work' on Teacher's Day," - commented the observer on the hearing.

Valentina Shostak also reported systemic violations of the observer's rights at polling station No. 10-10. "This year I was an observer at polling station 10-10. Until the last moment, I doubted whether to go or not. Naturally, I did not expect any fair elections. During the counting of the voting results, I was not shown the ballots. The procedure for counting the voting results was violated, the counting was conducted in such a way that I could not see anything. Shouting, obstructing me, police officers blocking my view - everything as usual at this 'circus' called elections," - she said.

Shostak noted that she turned to the court also due to obstruction of her work as an observer.

During the elections, at least 44 reports of alleged violations were received from the Krasnodar region. For example, at polling station No. 2014 in Krasnodar, observer Ekaterina Burdyukova reported a tenfold discrepancy between the number of records of early voters in the logs and the information submitted to the TEC. Later, she reported the opening of a safe with filled ballots. On September 20, activist Vitaly Cherkasov pointed out the conditions under which observers at the same polling station had to monitor the vote counting from about 10 meters away.