Texas special election reporting

Texas has scheduled special elections on November 7, 2006, to fill the U.S. House seats affected by redistricting. The elections will be for Districts 15, 21, 23, 25 and 28. There are two possible special elections to fill these seats, but only one may be necessary. If no candidate wins a majority of votes in the Special General Election, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will participate in a Special Runoff election on a date to be set by the Secretary of State after November 7. All runoff elections will be held on the same date. If a Special Runoff is held, the Commission will notify committees of the reporting dates for that election and the committees involved in both elections will be required to file Pre-General, Pre-Runoff, and Post-Runoff reports. Note that 48-hour notices are required of authorized committees that receive contributions of $1,000 or more for the Special General between October 19 and November 4. Political committees must file 24-hour notices of independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $1,000 between October 19 and November 5. This requirement is in addition to that of filing 48-hour notices of independent expenditures that aggregate $10,000 or more at other times during a calendar year. Additionally, the 60-day electioneering communications time period for the Special General runs from September 8 through November 7.¹

¹ Individuals and other groups not registered with the FEC who make electioneering communications costing more than $10,000 in the aggregate in the calendar year must disclose this activity to the Commission within 24 hours of the distribution of the communication. See 11 CFR 100.29 and 104.20.

² This date indicates the end of a reporting period. A reporting period always begins the day after the closing date of the last report filed. If the committee is new and has not previously filed a report, the first report must cover all activity that occurred before the committee registered.

³ Reports filed electronically must be submitted by midnight on the filing date. A committee required to file electronically that instead files on paper reporting forms will be considered a nonfiler. Reports filed on paper and sent by registered or certified mail must be sent by postmarked by the mailing date (please note that a certificate of mailing is not an acceptable method). If using overnight mail, the delivery service must receive the report by the mailing date. “Overnight mail” includes Priority or Express Mail having a delivery confirmation, or an overnight delivery service with an online tracking system and scheduled for next day delivery service. Reports sent by other means must be received by the Commission’s close of business on the filing date.