Examining Digital Campaigning Through the Normative Framework Underpinning Election Law - The Rationale and Challenges of Regulation

Digital and data-driven tools are the hallmarks of the contemporary political campaign. Broadly described as "digital campaigning", these new tools and techniques are currently subject to significant scrutiny. A number of governments and international organisations have launched investigations into digital campaigning in order to understand how it influences the election process and make recommendations for regulation. However, election law scholars have been somewhat absent from this discussion. Political scientists or communication experts have undertaken most of the scholarly analysis, reducing it to the binary question: did digital campaigning influence a voter's political choice? The purpose of this article is to examine digital campaigning through the normative framework underpinning existing election laws, and therefore to offer an alternative to the dominant binary approach. It outlines a normative rationale for regulation of digital campaigning and concludes that, although regulation would be a complex task, election law is well placed to respond.