File Campaign Finance Report & Wet Ink Signature by January 26

ElectaFile Short Summary: End of Year Semi Annual Reports are due 72 hours from now on Friday, January 26, 2024. This means the report and the wet ink signature. Electronically filing timely reports has two steps explained by applicable law and history. If you don’t do both steps, you face up to $500 fines and sometimes up to $10K fines for statewide committees. BONUS TIP on how to check if your report and wet ink signature made it through…

In the old days, and still for some committees, filing campaign finance reports meant sending off completed paper forms signed by the committee’s treasurer or an assistant treasurer.

Sort of like the old Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, it was an all-postal affair. You sent your reports off—paid a premium for proof of delivery and life was good.

But these forms have their limitations. Handwriting is sometimes illegible. Ink smudges. Things get lost in the mail. And sometimes post marks are blurry or nonexistent.

In the 21st Century, electronic filing became a thing. There’s the state .cfd software; there are compatible third-party filing software companies. ElectaFile is one.

Even with e-filing, the State Board still needs a way to document that the filing treasurer stands by the content of his or her reports. On paper, the signature would be included in what was sent. But for E-Filing? The State Board still needs something to point to as proof that the Treasurer is attesting to the accuracy of the report. Thus the notion of the wet ink signature.

The rule right now is if you e-file (and many of you must e-file), you must send in a wet ink signed cover page to your report by the deadline.

The e-filed report and the wet ink signature must be submitted by the deadline. In this instance, the deadline is Friday, January 26, 2024 (72 Hours from Now…).

Here’s what a properly e-filed and wet-inked signature looks like on the State Board’s website:

You’ll see two entries for the Year End Semi-Annual Report: first, on January 2, 2024, this hard charging committee e-filed the actual report. This is indicated by the data link in the far right column.

Second, at the top of the table, you see a second reference to the Year End Semi-Annual Report with the image link in the 2nd to far right column. The inclusion of the data and the image tells the reader that the committee properly e-filed and sent in a wet ink signature.

If you see a filing that has no data link and only an image, that tells you the committee filed a document the old fashioned way—via paper.

Be sure to get both of these done by Friday, January 26, 2024 in the case of the year end semi-annual report.

PS Once you’ve done both, you can use these skills at the State Board’s website to see that your wet ink signature was received. Just search by your committee name. If the image link hasn’t appeared within a few business days of your mailing, then you know it hasn’t yet arrived.

Check us out at ElectaFile.com 

What is ElectaFile.com? ElectaFile offers easy and affordable electronic "click to file" services with the NC State Board and County Boards. ElectaFile is web-based and accessible from Macs and PCs with an internet connection. You only pay a small fee if you file using ElectaFile. If you need a free consultation on your situation, please let us know. If ElectaFile can help, it will. We are not your treasurer or your lawyer. If you need a professional treasurer or an attorney, ElectaFile regularly refers folks to professionals on all sides of the aisle.