Actual Crimean Election Results

Cartoon by Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee.
Cartoon by Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea[ref]aka North Korea[/ref] holds elections. It’s democratic, don’t ya know! In the most recent elections, President Kim Jong-un’s party, the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland[ref]Tyrants always have the best names and slogans[/ref] got 100% of the vote. Only slightly more credibly, 96.77% of Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. It’s kind of a silly number on the one hand, and a disturbing one on the other. I mean, at this point Putin is actively making a mockery of any notion of due process.

So what were the actual votes like from the election? Ordinarily we’d just have to guess, but according to Forbes, the Russian Human Rights Council accidentally released the real results briefly on their website. Oops. It says that about half of the voters in Crimea elected to secede and join Russia, but also that only 30% of Crimeans voted (Russia claimed that turnout was 83%). So, that would mean that the vote for Crimea to secede from Ukraine and join Russia has the support of…. 15% of the population.

Power to the people!