Информационное обеспечение избирательного (референдумного) процесса как средство реализации принципа свободных выборов: истоки правового регулирования и современное состояние российского законодательства

Introduction: providing a real opportunity for the citizens to participate in the affairs of the state is a true ideal of democracy. One of the fundamentals of the choice possibility is to obtain the complete, reliable, consistent information about the objects from which the individual must make a choice or abandon all the options presented. In this regard, the study of the issues of information support of the electoral (referendum) process is one of the most important for understanding the true value of the citizen’s choice, the achievement of the research goal allows identifying the deep links between the information and the decision taken by the citizen within the electoral process. Methods: the achievement of this goal was facilitated by the use of both general and specific methods of cognition of social and legal phenomena (formal legal method, historicism). Results: the author’s point of view shown in the work is based on the legislation and the opinions of the representatives of the legal science on the importance of the information support of the electoral (referendum) process in the mechanism of ensuring the principle of free elections. Conclusions: as a result of the study, the origins of the legal regulation of the information support of the electoral (referendum) process are identified, the purpose of such regulation is outlined - to provide the maximum opportunity for the voters to identify the essence of the process and their opinion about the candidates or the issue put to the referendum. It is concluded that the current Russian legislation in this area needs to be adjusted for the purpose of a more complete and comprehensive definition of the essence of the information support of the electoral (referendum) process.