Russian election authorities use candidate bios to visually accent Putin’s name on presidential ballot

Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has finalized the text that will appear on the ballot in the country’s upcoming presidential election, which is scheduled for March 15–17. The commission shared an image of the form on Telegram on Friday.

The four candidates who were allowed to proceed to this year’s election are listed in alphabetical order along with basic information about their professional positions and the parties they are representing. But while each candidate is given equal space on the ballot, Vladimir Putin’s name stands out: his biographical information is only two lines long, while that of every other candidate is at least eight lines long.

The Russian election authorities also made Putin’s name stand out on the ballot in this way in 2018. During that election, CEC head Ella Pamfilova said that the ballots were “clearly in compliance with the law.”