Utah special election reporting: 3rd district (2017)

Utah will hold a Special General Election on November 7, 2017, to fill the U.S. House seat in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District being vacated by Representative Jason Chaffetz. A Special Primary Election, if necessary, will be held on August 15, 2017. Under Utah law, partisan candidates can seek nomination at their party’s convention and/or gather signatures to appear on the primary election ballot. The Commission has exercised its discretion not to require reports in connection with the parties’ conventions in the setting of special election reporting dates.

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:

Additional details are available at https://transition.fec.gov/pages/report_notices/2017/ut03.shtml.

Filing schedule for PACs and party committees

PACs and party committees filing on a semi-annual basis in 2017 are subject to special election reporting if they make previously undisclosed contributions or expenditures in connection with a special election by the close of books of the applicable report(s). Note, the Mid-Year Report is waived for those PACs and parties that file the Pre-Primary 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. 29562 (June 29, 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)(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. See 52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(2)(A)(i), (a)(4)(A)(ii); 11 CFR 100.19(b)(1), 104.5(a)(2). 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 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). (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 at https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/forms/.

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 July 27 through August 12 for the Special Primary Election (if necessary), and from October 19 through November 4 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 July 27 through August 13 for the Special Primary Election (if necessary), and from October 19 through November 5 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 July 27 for the Special Primary Election (if necessary), and prior to October 19 for the Special General Election.

Electioneering communications

The 30-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special Primary Election (if necessary) runs from July 16 through August 15. The 60-day electioneering communications period for the Special General Election runs from September 8 through November 7.

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.

Relevant citations:

52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)
Filing requirements

11 CFR 100.19(b) and (c)
Timely filed reports; electronically filed reports

11 CFR 104.5
Filing dates

11 CFR 104.5(c)
Filing dates; committees that are not authorized committees of candidates

11 CFR 104.5(e)
Date of filing

11 CFR 104.5(h)
Special election reports

11 CFR 104.5(i)
Retaining proof of mailing

11 CFR 104.18(a)(2) and (e)
Mandatory electronic filing and validation program

11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v) and (b)
Disclosure of bundling by lobbyist/registrants and lobbyist/registrant pacs for runoffs and special elections; reporting requirement for reporting committees

11 CFR 110.17(e)(2)
Lobbyist/registrant and lobbyist/registrant PAC contribution bundling disclosure threshold

Resources:

• Utah 3rd district special election prior notice
  
• 2017 reporting dates
  
• Utah 3rd district special election compliance page
  
• Federal Register notice [PDF]