Get-out-the-vote efforts

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Vladimir Putin’s victory in Russia’s presidential election Sunday isn’t in doubt. The only real question is whether voters will turn out in big enough numbers to hand him a convincing mandate for his fourth term, and many Russian workers are facing intense pressure to do so.

Putin is so certain of winning that authorities are investing instead in massive get-out-the-vote efforts to produce a turnout that would embolden the Russian leader both domestically and internationally.

Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city Yekaterinburg, says local officials and state employees have all received orders “from higher up” to make sure the presidential vote turnout is over 60 percent.