"10 Day Periods" to Act Arise All the Time in NC Campaign Finance Land

ElectaFile Short Summary: 10 days is the magic period for many different obligations in the NC campaign finance space; this post reviews key instances where you may have 10 days to act; and reminds you not to forget the Certification of Financial Account

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Given we’re moving towards candidate filing period in December, this post talks a bit about the first plunge into campaign land and the time periods to act. Business thinkers talk about the difficulty of going from zero to one, i.e., moving from idea to some form of action.

Let’s get you from zero to one on candidate campaign committees (and other committees for that matter). We’ll also talk about the enduring magic of “ten day periods.”

We previously called the Statement of Organization the “birth certificate” for your committee. This is true for most if not all committees, but for simplicity we’ll take about candidate committees this time (watch out for federal PACs which we’ll cover another time…). Same goes for political party committees although where you hear “first activity” for candidate committees, substitute “organized” for political party committees.

Let’s get started…

Here’s 10 Day Clock No. 1: The law compels you to file a Statement of Organization within ten days of something called a “first activity.” That term appears in the Campaign Manual and is defined by examples on Page 32. One example is you tell your friend you’re running for office, and he promptly writes you a donation check. You have ten days to register your committee thereafter. Still another example: in a moment of zeal, you bought yard signs. That’s an expenditure, and your ten day clock has started.

Legal enthusiasts (you know who you are!) will get excited to know that the law infers your committee exists from the moment of your first activity (not when you register…). Thus, your committee is bound to follow the law on contributions and expenditures even before it’s registered with the board of elections.

One of our readers suggested (keep the feedback coming!) that we also mention here the Certification of Financial Account (CRO-3500) which is the instrument by which you tell the board of elections about your bank account. You’ll need a separate bank account to keep your campaign funds. More detail on this later, but, for now, please know that the Statement of Organization and the Certification of Financial Account are due at the same time (unless you’re going to remain under a certain $$$ threshold, which we’ll discuss later). Many folks forget about the Certification of Financial Account because it is not scanned and searchable on the web; ergo, “out of sight, out of mind”.

Here’s 10 Day Clock No. 2 (sort of..): We’ve talked about the Statement of Organization and how it is often confused with the Organizational Report. If the Statement of Organization is the birth certificate then the Organizational Report is the first accounting. The Organizational Report is required to be filed on or before the 10th day following the “first activity”. Thus, the deadline for the Statement of Organization and the Certification of Finance Account on the one hand and the Organizational Report on the other hand are both ten days from “first activity”/organization date of the party committee. See Page 79 of the Campaign Manual regarding party committees.

You could in theory file all of the i) Statement of Organization; ii) the Certificate of Financial Account; and iii) the Organizational Report on the same day. You can also file them on different days with the Statement of Organization first, as some committees do. A committee could race to the elections office to file the Statement of Organization on the day it gets its first donation and still have 10 days from then to file the Organizational Report and the Certification of Financial Account. Hard to say which practice is more common without comparing the date stamps on Statements of Organization compared to the filed dates of Organizational Reports.

Here’s 10 Day Clock No. 3: Federal PACs (these are entities “born” at the FEC in Washington) must register with the NC State Board of Elections within ten days of making its first contribution to a North Carolina candidate or political committee. That’s right—even though the federal PAC is a federal creature, NC law applies if it wants to “play” in North Carolina state elections.

Here’s 10 Day Clock No. 4: If you change treasurers, you have ten days from that change to file an amended Statement of Organization (recall that you just check a different box on the same form you used the first time…).

Here’s 10 Day Clock No. 5: If you receive a prohibited contribution from a limited contributor during the legislative session, e.g., a political action committee (“PAC”) whose parent entity employs a registered lobbyist, you have ten days to return it.

Here’s Bonus 10 Day Clock No.6: You have ten days following an election to remove yard signs.

These are important ten day deadlines that you should ponder. There are even more ten day deadlines for rarer and more narrow situations. You should review the Campaign Manual to cover the whole field on this.

In sum, if in doubt, ten days might be your deadline. Except for 48 hour reports, which we’ll cover separately, and legal defense funds that must keep books current within seven days, ten days is the shortest common deadline for performance as far as we see it.

If you are aware of other deadlines, you’d like us to write about, please comment or email us at [email protected]. If you have topics for us to look into or cover, shoot us an email at [email protected].

Until next time!

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