The effectiveness of election information support as a factor in raising awareness of Russian youth about the voting procedure

The object of the study is the awareness of the youth segment of the electorate about the voting procedure in the elections of the State Duma and the President of the Russian Federation. The subject of the study is the impact of election information support on the level of awareness of the youth segment of the Russian electorate about the voting procedure and date. The authors' attention to youth is due to its socio-demographic characteristics, which mark a transitional period of development, lack of life experience and being at the stage of civic formation. The authors of the article consider raising awareness of young citizens about elections as a result of work on informing about the upcoming elections, creating conditions for equal access of this population group to sources of information about the electoral process. Special attention is paid to the connection between youth awareness of the elections and information campaigns conducted in the run-up to the elections.  The main research method was a comparative analysis of the results of the information work of the CEC of the Russian Federation with various segments of the electorate represented by VTSIOM for the period from 2016 to 2024. The analysis was carried out according to such parameters as the level of awareness of the youth segment of the electorate about the election procedure and the date of voting. The article presents the results of measuring the effectiveness of information support for the electorate during election campaigns in the Russian Federation, identifies and argues the degree of awareness of its youth segment about the main components of the voting procedure in elections for the period 2016-2024. The main conclusion was the revealed dependence of the level of awareness of young people about the procedure of elections of authorities on the age factor. Between the two age groups compared, the work on information support of the electoral process most effectively affects the age group of 25 - to 34–year-old respondents, rather than the youth aged 18-24. The data obtained allowed us to conclude that more careful work is needed when preparing publications for the youth segment of the electorate. It is necessary to take into account not only the interests, needs, and problems in the social development of each age group of young people, but also the nature of their perception of content and its presentation forms.

elections, election campaign, election information support, voter information, youth electorate, youth, election awareness, voting procedure, the effectiveness of informing voters, electoral process