Vologda says goodbye to ‘voting stump’ dedicated to Russian Election Commission Chairwoman

Over the weekend, the Russian city of Vologda was briefly home to an unusual piece of public art — a wrought-iron ballot box (complete with a slot for submitting votes) installed on top of an old tree stump. It was accompanied by a plaque that read “stump named after Ella Pamfilova” (the Chairwoman of Russia’s Central Election Commission). 

Local resident Elena Voskresenskaya posted a photo of the stump on Instagram on Saturday, October 31. At first, she wrote that she didn’t understand “why this stump,” because it seemed far removed from politics. But when the photo started to spread online, she decided to look into its history.

As it turns out, the art piece is dedicated to the “voting on stumps” that became famous during the nationwide plebiscite on constitutional amendments this summer. During in-person voting, Russian citizens were allowed to cast their ballots at open-air sites to reduce the risk spreading COVID-19. As a result, some people voted at ballot boxes located on rocks or tree stumps, or even in the trunks of cars.

Russian Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova even conducted an audit, which concluded that there were three tree stumps in Russia that served as polling stations for Russian citizens voting on amendments to the constitution. 

The artist behind the installation remains unknown and over the weekend it was unclear whether or not the ballot box had been installed legally. It remained in place from October 31 to November 1, drawing spectators who wanted to take pictures. “There are two possibilities here: either it’s legal, or someone is off for the weekend,” Voskresenskaya speculated in her post.

On Monday November 2, Elena Voskresenskaya posted an updated photo on Instagram, showing that the ballot box had been removed (the tree stump remained in place). “RIP stump named after Ella Pamfilova,” she wrote in the caption, adding that she thinks the people behind the installation removed it themselves. “It was removed too cleanly, which isn’t typical of our administration,” she wrote.

That said, Ella Pamfilova herself gave the art piece a positive review: “Beautiful! I really like this folk art, I welcome it. It’s wonderful! This is our Russia. I don’t see anything wrong,” she said, as quoted by the website Podyom.