Is There a Right to Secondary Distribution of Campaign Materials?

The electoral legislation of the Russian Federation provides for the possibility of conducting election campaigning by candidates and electoral associations, including in the form of distributing campaign materials among voters. Similar activities are carried out by initiative and other groups for holding a referendum. The activities of these entities can be designated as the primary distribution of campaign materials. At the same time, Russian legislation does not contain any special legal provisions allowing, prohibiting or establishing conditions for the transfer of campaign materials received by voters, referendum participants to other persons for acquaintance (secondary distribution of campaign materials). Of particular importance in this context is the issue of the possibility of voters forwarding campaign information messages on social networks and instant messaging services (messengers). In the absence of directly applicable legal provisions, conclusions must be based on general legal provisions on the conditions for conducting election campaigning, which is associated with significant difficulties and may lead to the formation of contradictory law enforcement practices. Having substantiated the problem, the author analyzes the applicable norms of the electoral legislation with respect to some possible actions of voters: distribution of printed campaign material or informational message in an unchanged form; their distribution with some changes that change or do not change their campaigning nature; distribution of printed campaign material or informational message with positive or negative comments. Conclusions are made about the establishment of an explicit legislative prohibition or permission for each of these actions. The author also expresses his position on the advisability of amending the current legislation.