South Carolina special election reporting: 5th district (2017)

South Carolina will hold Special Primary and General elections to fill the U.S. House seat in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District vacated by Representative Mick Mulvaney. The Special Primary will be held on May 2, 2017, and the Special General will be held June 20, 2017. Under South Carolina law, in the event that one candidate does not achieve a majority vote in his/her party’s Special Primary Election, the top two vote-getters will participate in a Special Runoff Election held on May 16, 2017.

To find out which reports your committee must file in 2017, check the Filing Frequency by Type of Filer section of our 2017 reporting dates web page. By default, campaign committees file quarterly reports, and PACs and party committees file on a semi-annual basis (if they filed quarterly reports in 2016) or a monthly basis (certain party committees and all committees that filed monthly in 2016). Most PACs and party committees have the option to change their filing frequency once per calendar year.

Filing schedule for candidates

Candidate committees involved in these elections must follow this reporting schedule:

Candidate committees involved in only the Special Primary (05/02/17) must file:

If only two elections are held, candidate committees involved in both the Special Primary (05/02/17) and the Special General (06/20/17) must file:

If three elections are held, candidate committees involved in only the Special Primary (05/02/17) and the Special Runoff (05/16/17) must file:

*The mailing deadline for the Pre-Runoff is the same as the filing deadline because the computed mailing deadline would fall one day before the primary is held.

Candidate committees involved in the Special Primary (05/02/17), the Special Runoff (05/16/17) and the Special General (06/20/17) must file:

*The mailing deadline for the Pre-Runoff is the same as the filing deadline because the computed mailing deadline would fall one day before the primary is held.

Additional details are available at https://transition.fec.gov/pages/report_notices/2017/sc05.shtml.

Filing schedule for PACs and party committees

The schedule also applies to PACs and party committees that do not file monthly in 2017 and participate in these elections. Note, the Mid-Year Report is waived for those PACs and parties that file the Post-General Report.

PACs and party committees that file monthly should continue to file according to their regular filing schedule.

Please note that the FEC does not have authority to extend filing deadlines, even when they fall on weekends.

Additional details are available at 82 Fed. Reg. 13600 (March 14, 2017).

Filing electronically

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 are considered to be filed on the date of their postmark. See 52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(2)(A)(i), (a)(4)(A)(ii) and (a)(5); 11 CFR 104.5(e). Accordingly, pre-election reports sent by registered or certified mail must be postmarked on or before the mailing deadline to be considered timely filed; other reports must be postmarked by the filing deadline. 11 CFR 100.19(b). A committee sending its reports by certified or registered mail should keep its mailing receipt with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postmark as proof of mailing because the USPS does not keep complete records of items sent by certified or registered mail. 11 CFR 104.5(i).

Overnight Mail. Reports filed via overnight mail will be considered timely filed if the report is received by the delivery service on or before the mailing/filing deadline. “Overnight mail” includes Priority or Priority 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.

A committee sending its reports by Priority Mail or Priority Express Mail, or by an overnight delivery service, should keep its proof of mailing or other means of transmittal of its reports. 52 U.S.C. § 30104(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 by the FEC before the Commission’s close of business on the filing deadline. 11 CFR 100.19 and 104.5(e). (If the deadline falls on a weekend or federal holiday, such filers should plan accordingly and file reports by the close of business on the last business day before the filing deadline.)

Forms are available for downloading and printing at the FEC’s website.

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 per source from April 13 through April 29 for the Special Primary Election, from April 27 through May 13 for the Special Runoff Election (if held) and from June 1 through June 17 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 $1,000 or more from April 13 through April 30 for the Special Primary Election, from April 27 through May 14 for the Special Runoff Election (if held) and from June 1 through June 18 for the Special General Election. This requirement is addition to that of filing 48-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate $10,000 or more 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 13 for the Special Primary Election. If the Special Runoff Election is held, the 48-hour reporting requirement applies to independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $10,000 prior to April 27. For the Special General Election, the 48-hour reporting requirement applies to independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $10,000 prior to June 1.

Electioneering communications

The 30-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special Primary Election runs from April 2 through May 2. The 30-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special Runoff Election (if held) runs from April 16 through May 16. The 60-day electioneering communications period for the Special General Election runs from April 21 through June 20.

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 $17,900 during the special election reporting periods. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v) and (b); 110.17(e)(2).

Resources:

• South Carolina 5th district special election prior notice
  
• 2017 reporting dates
  
• South Carolina 5th district special election compliance page
  
• Federal Register notice [PDF]