The Ethics Commission has issued an opinion for organizations accepting campaign contributions electronically. Advisory Opinion 2014-EC-002 permits organizations to accept electronic donations without requiring the donor to submit personal information if the information is already recorded.

The commission issued the opinion at the request of ActBlue, a political action committee for Democratic candidates across the country. The ActBlue website requires personal information of the donor to be submitted, but not resubmitted for subsequent contributions.

The committee asked if this practice complied with a statutory requirement for electronic records to include the donor’s name, address, place of business, employer, and occupation “at the time of making the contribution.” The commission concluded even if some of the required donor information was provided prior to a contribution, the record would comply with the statute.