AO 2008-06: Proposed slate card is exempt party activity

Costs incurred by the Democratic Party of Virginia (the Committee) to prepare and distribute its proposed publications are not considered contributions or expenditures. Publications distributed by employees of the committee satisfy the “slate card exemption,” provided the content of the publications is consistent with the nature of that exemption. Publications distributed by volunteers can satisfy the “volunteer activity exemption.”

Background

The Committee is a state party that is registered as a political committee with the Commission. The Committee plans to prepare and distribute publications featuring Democratic Party candidates running for state and federal office in Virginia. The publications will include information about the general election, including the date and time of the election and how and where to cast a ballot. The Committee plans to include abstract designs and colors in the backgrounds or on the borders of the publications in order to make them “more visually compelling,” and it also plans to include photographs of the candidates featured in the publications. The Committee plans to have its workers, both paid and volunteer, distribute the publications by mail and by hand. All costs associated with the publications will be paid by the Committee using federal funds.

Analysis

Slate cards

The Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) exempts from the definition of “contribution” and “expenditure” the payment by state and local political party committees of the costs incurred to prepare, display, mail or otherwise distribute a printed slate card, sample ballot or “other printed listing(s)” of three or more candidates for any public office who are to be elected in the relevant state. 11 CFR 100.80 and 100.140. The provision is generally known as the “slate card exemption.”

The Committee’s proposed publications meet the threshold requirements of the slate card exemption since the Committee will refer to at least three candidates running for election in Virginia, including at least one federal candidate.

The Commission has previously concluded that slate cards may include the following information: 1) information identifying candidates by name or by picture; 2) the office or position currently held by the candidates; 3) the elective office being sought by the candidates; 4) party affiliation; and 5) voting information, such as the time and place of an election and instructions on the method for voting a straight party ticket. Publications that provide additional biographical information, candidate positions or statements of party philosophy do not qualify for the slate card exemption. The Committee’s plan to include designs, images and extra photographs on its publications does not necessarily provide excess biographical information about candidates or express candidate positions or statements of party philosophy. Thus, the Committee’s publications would qualify under the slate card exemption.

Additionally, the Committee’s workers are not restricted in the type of political speech they may engage in while distributing the slate cards by hand.

Volunteer activity

If Committee volunteers distribute the Committee’s publications, the slate card exemption’s limit on content would be unnecessary. The Act and Commission regulations also include a “volunteer activity exemption,” which exempts from the definition of “contribution” and “expenditure” the costs to create, purchase and distribute campaign materials, including pins, bumper stickers, handbills, brochures, posters, party tabloids and yard signs that are used by state and local political party committees in connection with volunteer activities on behalf of that party’s nominees. 11 CFR 100.87 and 100.147.

Unlike the slate card exemption, the content of materials that are distributed under the volunteer activity exemption is not restricted, so long as they are distributed by volunteers in a manner consistent with other requirements of the exemption. The types of campaign materials covered by this exemption include all manner of publications, including those proposed by the Committee.

Date Issued: August 22, 2008; Length: 6 pages.