Elections

Board Approves New Online Campaign Finance Disclosure Ordinance

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The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved an ordinance requiring certain candidates to file campaign finance disclosure statements online.

In the past, paperwork was submitted to the Registrar of Voters office and it posted the documents online in a PDF format. For further analysis, each campaign statement had to be reviewed manually to determine how much and who was making campaign contributions. Now the Registrar’s Office is implementing a new electronic filing option, anticipated to be available in June. Candidates would file their information online and the public could download the information into a spreadsheet format for easier analysis.

State law requires the Board of Supervisors to pass an ordinance if candidates and committees are required to file online. The Board took the first step at setting the threshold requirement at $10,000, meaning the County requirement would affect only those County candidates and committees that receive or spend an amount equal to or greater than the threshold.

Candidates below the threshold would have the option to file online or bring their campaign finance disclosure statements in to the Registrar’s office.

The Board approved the first reading of the ordinance. A second reading takes place March 17 and if adopted would take effect 30 days later.

Tracy DeFore is a communications specialist with the County of San Diego Communications Office. Contact