Campaigning and administrative mobilization for the elections on the single day of voting on September 8, 2024

To win the necessary candidates in Russian elections, administrations at all levels first artificially limit the competition by selecting convenient rivals, then create the most favorable information background for the politicians they support, then organize the participation of the necessary voters in the voting, and finally, if even this is not enough to achieve the desired result, the voting results can be simply manipulated.

The administrative mobilization of voters for the 2024 single day elections is significantly lower in scale and organizational effort to this year's presidential elections. There is probably no single decision-making and reporting center.

Gubernatorial elections are the most severe in terms of pressure on voters. Re-elected governors, as a rule, want to demonstrate by high turnout that they enjoy public support. However, high turnout figures have nothing to do with reality.

Remote electronic voting continues to be a mechanism for controlling voter turnout. The most active coercion to electronic voting remains in Moscow, where paper ballots have actually been eliminated - here they are forced to vote online. At the same time, it is impossible for observers to control the legality of this voting format.

A way of non-political "stimulation" of voter turnout is the usual organization of hidden bribery for the very fact of participation in voting in the form of various quizzes, prize giveaways, lotteries, distribution of gifts and tickets. In gubernatorial elections, where no one competes with the incumbent regional leaders, such actions should attract voters to the polling stations to show a high turnout.

Campaigning and informing this year are also rather stingy. The media often formally refuse to place campaigning by candidates and parties, even despite the loss of possible income from paid advertising.

The situation is similar in social media. Candidates, their programs and actions are practically not reflected in social networks. For voters, candidates practically do not exist either in the media or in social networks. 

In fact, the space of social networks during the elections turned out to be monopolized by the administrations almost as much as the space of traditional media. Each regional administration has a wide network of accounts and communities under its control in these social networks.

Illegal campaigning is actively used in buildings and premises belonging to the state and municipalities. Opponents of the authorities are not allowed to enter such buildings, and owners of publicly accessible advertising surfaces are advised not to work with opponents of the authorities.

Read more in our report (in Russian)