Massachusetts special election reporting: Senate (2013)
Massachusetts will hold special primary and general elections to fill the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. The Special Primary will be held on April 30, 2013, and the Special General will be held June 25, 2013.
Candidate committees involved in these elections must follow the reporting schedule posted at https://transition.fec.gov/pages/report_notices/2013/masen.shtml. That schedule also applies to PACs and party committees that file on a semi-annual basis in 2013 and participate in these elections. PACs and party committees that file monthly should continue to file according to their regular filing schedule.
Filing electronically
U.S. Senate committees file with the Secretary of the Senate and 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.
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 certified mail should keep its certified 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. A committee sending its report by registered mail should keep its proof of mailing. Note that a certificate of mailing from the USPS is not sufficient to prove that a report is timely filed using registered, certified or overnight mail. 2 U.S.C. §434(a)(5) and 11 CFR 100.19 and 104.5(e) and (i).
Overnight mail. Reports filed via overnight mail [FN1] will be considered timely filed if the report is received by the delivery service on or before the mailing deadline. A committee 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 100.19 and 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).
48-Hour contribution notices
A participating candidate’s principal campaign committee must file a 48-hour notice each time it receives a contribution of $1,000 or more between April 11, 2013, and April 27, 2013, for the Special Primary and between June 6, 2013, and June 22, 2013, for the Special General.
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 April 11, 2013, and April 28, 2013 for the Special Primary and between June 6, 2013, and June 23, 2013, for the Special General. This requirement is in addition to that of filing 48-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate $10,000 or more during the calendar year up to and including the 20th day before an election. The 48-hour reporting requirement applies to independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $10,000 prior to April 11, 2013, for the Special Primary. For the Special General, the 48-hour reporting requirement applies to independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $10,000 prior to June 6, 2013.
Electioneering communications
The 30-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special Primary runs from March 31, 2013, through April 30, 2013. The 60-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special General runs from April 26, 2013, through June 25, 2013.
Disclosure of lobbyist bundling activity
Campaign committees, party committees and leadership PACs that are otherwise required to file reports in connection with the special elections must simultaneously file FEC Form 3L if they receive two or more bundled contributions from any lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC that aggregate in excess of $17,100 during the special election reporting periods. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v) and (b). For more information on these requirements, see the March 2009 Record.
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 on-line tracking system.