Double Check This: Where to Send Paper Reports & Wet Ink Signatures

Good afternoon!

We are going to recap where to send paper reports and paper signatures. It’s a bit tricky.

If you’ve already filed your YESA (due this Friday, Jan. 30), take a second to reflect on whether you’ve sent the signatures to the correct place.

In the old days, if you are a “county committee,” you filed paper reports and sent wet ink signatures (usually one stack of papers) all at once to your County Board of Elections. This is still true (with more flexibility described below).

The trick here is what’s a “county committee”? Many of you might say “I’m a county party committee,” therefore I am a “county committee.” We love you, but you’d be wrong.

The State Board filers are straightforward (sort of…): these committees file everything with the State Board, regardless: all political party committees (think Durham REC or Moore DEC), all auxiliary party committees (think Greene County Democratic Women or New Hanover County Republican Men); all judicial offices; all legislative offices; all Council of State offices. Trickiest one: district attorneys. District attorneys file with the State.

OK. That’s a lot. Who’s left to file with County Board of Elections offices? Answer: county officials (school board, sheriff, county commissioner, register of deeds) and municipal officials (city council members, mayors, etc.). Trickiest one: clerks of court. If you’ve got edge cases and you’re not sure, drop us a line at [email protected].

Trickiest Awards Go To: DAs and Clerks of Court. DAs are county officers in the courthouse and can represent multiple counties. They all file with the State Board. Clerks of Court are judicial-type officials but they file with the County Boards. Tricky!!!

What does this mean for you? If you are a State Board filer, you send all paper to the State Board of Elections. With the weather and roads, you can drop your signed paper reports at a drop box today at the Dobbs Building in downtown Raleigh (even though the State Board Offices are remote today and tomorrow).

If you are a County filer, you file all paper (reports and wet ink signatures) with your County Board of Elections.

There’s a Catch that Makes Your Life Easier: when you e-file (regardless of County or State), your report goes to the State Board of Elections using any platform you use to e-file. For @ElectaFile filers, we send your report to the State Board at [email protected]. Importantly, if you digitally sign your report, that also gets sent to the State Board of of Elections at [email protected].

TL;DR: If anyone e-files, your report goes to Raleigh via email. if anyone digitally signs, your digital signature goes to Raleigh via email. To the same email address. This is true for everyone in North Carolina.

TL;DR 2: If you are a county filer, all paper goes to your county Board. Even if you e-file your report, any paper signature must go to your County Board of Elections.

This means that if you’re a county filer who has successfully e-filed, but you still want to send in or deliver a wet ink signature, you take that to the…..county board of elections.

The deadline applies equally to the Report and the Signature. You’ve got to do both to avoid fines.

Good luck! If we can help with a free consultation, drop us a line!

**By the way, if you’re reading this message, you’ve subscribed to our newsletter or filed a report using ElectaFile or both. If you’d like to unsubscribe from these emails, please click the link on this email to unsubscribe. We mean to help and, if you leave, we part as friends.**