Florida special election reporting: 13th district
Florida will hold Special Primary and General elections to fill the 13th Congressional District House seat of the late Congressman Bill Young. The Special Primary will be held on January 14, 2014, and the Special General will be held on March 11, 2014.
Candidate committees involved in these elections must follow the reporting schedule posted at https://transition.fec.gov/pages/report_notices/2014/fl13.shtml. That schedule also applies to PACs and party committees that participate in the elections and file on a semi-annual basis in 2013 and a quarterly basis in 2014. PACs and party committees that file monthly should continue to file according to their regular filing schedule.
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 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 by the FEC before the Commission’s close of business on the last business day before 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 December 26, 2013 and January 11, 2014 for
the Special Primary and between February 20 and March 8, 2014 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 $1,000 between December 26, 2013 and January 12, 2014 for the
Special Primary and between February 20 and March 9, 2014 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 December 26, 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 February 20, 2014.
Electioneering communications
The 30-day electioneering communications period in connection with the Special Primary runs from December 15, 2013 through January 14, 2014. The 60-day electioneering communications period
in connection with the Special General runs from January 10 through March 11, 2014.
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 any lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC that aggregate in excess of the lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold during the special election reporting period. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v) and
(b).
The lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold for calendar year 2013 is $17,100. This threshold amount may increase in 2014 based upon the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA). As soon as the adjusted threshold amount is available, the Commission will publish it in the Federal Register and post it on its website. For more information on these requirements, see the March 2009 Record. See 11 CFR 110.17(e)(2).
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.
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