Illinois special election reporting: Senate vacancy
Illinois will hold a Special Election to fill the remainder of President Obama’s original U.S. Senate term, which expires on January 3, 2011. The Special General will be held November 2, 2010.
Candidate committees involved in this election must follow the reporting schedule. Please note that the reporting period for the Post-General election report spans two election cycles. For this report only, authorized committees must use the Post-Election Detailed Summary Page rather than the normal Detailed Summary Page. PACs and party committees that file on a quarterly schedule and participate in this election must also follow the schedule above. PACs and party committees that file monthly must continue to file according to their regular filing schedule.
Timely filing for paper filers
Registered and certified mail. Reports sent by registered or certified mail must be postmarked on or before the mailing deadline to be considered timely filed. A committee sending its reports by registered or certified mail should keep its mailing receipt with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postmark as proof of filing because the USPS does not keep complete records of items sent by certified mail. 2 U.S.C. § 434(a)(5) and 11 CFR 104.5(e).
Overnight mail. Reports filed via tee sending its reports by Express or Priority Mail, or by an overnight delivery service, should keep its proof of mailing or other means of transmittal of its reports. 2 U.S.C. § 434(a)(5) and 11 CFR 104.5(e).
Other means of filing. Reports sent by other means—including first class mail and courier—must be received before the Secretary of the Senate Public Records Office’s or the Commission’s close of business on the filing deadline. 11 CFR 100.19 and 104.5(e). Forms are available for downloading and printing at the FEC’s website and from FEC Faxline, the agency’s automated fax system (202/501-3413).
Filing electronically
U.S. Senate committees that file with the Secretary of the Senate are not subject to the mandatory electronic filing rules, but may file an unofficial copy of their reports with the Commission in order to speed disclosure. For other political committees, reports filed electronically must be received and validated by the Commission by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the applicable filing deadline. Electronic filers who instead file on paper or submit an electronic report that does not pass the Commission’s validation program by the filing deadline will be considered nonfilers and may be subject to enforcement actions, including administrative fines.
48-hour contribution notices
Note that 48-hour notices are required of the participating candidate’s principal campaign committee if it receives any contribution of $1,000 or more per source between October 14 and October 30, 2010, for the Special General Election.
24- and 48-hour reports of independent expenditures
Political committees and other persons must file 24-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $1,000 between October 14 and October 31, 2010, for the Special General Election. This requirement is in addition to that of filing 48-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate $10,000 or more during a calendar year.
Electioneering communications
The 60-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special General Election runs from September 3 through November 2, 2010.
Disclosure of lobbyist bundling activity
Campaign committees, party committees and leadership PACs that are otherwise required to file reports in connection with the special election must simultaneously file FEC Form 3L if they receive two or more bundled contributions from lobbyists/registrants or lobbyist/registrant PACs that aggregate in excess of $16,000 during the special election reporting period (see reporting schedule chart on page 5). 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v). For more information on these requirements, see the March 2009 Record.
FOOTNOTES
1 “Overnight mail” includes Priority or Express Mail having a delivery confirmation, or an overnight service with which the report is scheduled for next business day delivery and is recorded in the service’s online tracking system.