Understanding the Field on Campaign Reporting Deadlines

Greetings, Campaign Finance SportsFans!

Summary: Missing deadlines is like stepping in quicksand—it only gets worse and it is avoidable.

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Campaign committees new and old have reporting deadlines. These are days by which the board of elections requires you to “turn in your homework…”

If you miss deadlines, there are consequences. Mainly, monetary fines. That can get expensive. Smaller committees can pay $50/day. Larger committees can get up into the hundreds of dollars per day.

Generally, your first deadline occurs with your Organizational Report. Then your committee is regularly scheduled like everyone else for as long as the committee exists.

Key Catch No. 1: municipal elections are different than everybody else because they can occur in the odd-numbered year. They have different reporting deadlines. Be sure to wrestle down whether you’re working with a municipal campaign!

For just about everyone other than some municipal candidate campaign committees, in odd-numbered years, you file at least two reports: mid-year in July and end-of-year in January. You’ll see these called semi-annual reports by the board of elections. They’ll also use nifty acronyms like “MYSA” on the State Board’s website.

In even-numbered years, you file quarterly reports. There are four. They are filed by deadlines specified by the State Board. Key Catch No. 2: The quarterly report deadlines do not always track calendar quarters in the way financial reporting professionals expect. NC campaign veterans use terms like “3Q plus…” Thou shalt follow the State Board’s deadlines. Check their website here for the latest and greatest deadlines.

See you next time, The ElectaFile Team

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