On December 19, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register seeking public comment on proposed regulations giving political contributors more privacy from public scrutiny.

The proposals would establish procedures for contributors or their agents to request the FEC to modify or redact, in whole or in part, certain contributor information from disclosure reports or statements filed with the agency.

Examples of information to be removed include mailing addresses, donors’ occupation and names of employment.

The procedures would apply only in certain limited circumstances when there is a reasonable probability the contributor may face threats, harassment, or reprisal.

Comments must be received on or before February 18, 2025. All comments will be made available to the public. Comments sent using the FEC’s online form or through e-mail will be posted to the FEC’s website. Comments sent via paper will be converted to PDF and then posted on the FEC’s website.

On December 12, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) elected Vice Chair Ellen L. Weintraub as chair for 2025.

Weintraub will replace current Chairman Sean J. Cooksey. The chair is a rotating, one-year position.

Also, Commissioner James E. “Trey” Trainor, III was elected to the position of vice chair.

Vice Chair Weintraub has served on the FEC since 2002.

In 2025, Lobbyisme Québec, which conducts the daily monitoring, verification, and investigation activities concerning lobbyist in the province, will continue to specifically monitor companies and organizations involved in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector in order for them to be made aware of their lobbying obligations.

Examples given by  Lobbyisme Québec of lobbying activities in the AI sector include when a professional group is asking the government to provide clear guidelines to govern the use of AI in the financial and banking sectors; when a corporate lobbyist contacts a municipality to obtain a contract for document management using AI; and when a representative of an engineering consulting firm is approaching the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy regarding the allocation of a grant to develop an AI system.

Every two years Lobbyisme Québec identifies a target group that will be subject to specific monitoring activities.

Previous spotlights of this type of monitoring included, for 2023 to 2024, the privatization of health care; for 2020 to 2021, issues of cybersecurity; and for 2018 through 2020, issues concerning cannabis and cryptocurrency.

The current focus, which was influenced by the province’s plan to deal with AI called Strategy for the Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration 2021-2026, will continue into 2026.

At the upcoming open meeting of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on December 12, commissioners will consider a number of draft legislative recommendations concerning several issues, including expanding the prohibition of political contributions from foreign nationals.

Among the 17 different draft recommendations the FEC is considering, one includes asking Congress to revise the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) to prohibit knowingly helping or assisting a foreign national in violating existing prohibitions on contributions.

Additionally, the FEC will consider draft recommendations to further prohibit foreign nationals from involvement with state and local ballot initiatives, referenda, and any recall elections that are not already included in the other prohibitions.

Another legislative recommendation includes amending FECA’s disclosure requirements by requiring the FEC to protect from public disclosure the street names and street numbers of individual contributors.

Political committees and other filers would report full mailing address information confidentially to the FEC, but individuals’ street names and street numbers would not be made available to the public.

The FEC would continue to publicly disclose each contributor’s name, city, state, zip code, occupation, and employer.

Still another legislative recommendation would be asking Congress to expand the types of campaign finance reports required to be filed electronically, rather than on paper, to include electioneering communication reports, inaugural committee reports and reports of communication costs.

If the Commission approves the legislative recommendations, it will prepare transmittal letters to the President and Congress for the chairman’s signature.

On November 25, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its Semiannual Report to Congress.

The report summarizes the activity of the FEC OIG from April 1, 2024, through September 30, 2024.

In the report, the OIG discussed the audit of FEC’s Equal Employment Opportunity & Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility programs; its audit of the FEC’s Security Patches and Vulnerability Management program, and the postponement of an evaluation of the FEC’s Internal Control and Enterprise Risk Management programs.

Additionally, the OIG evaluated the 18 open recommendations stemming from inspections, investigations, special reviews, and previous or other audits.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is seeking public comments concerning federal political contributions made through untraceable electronic payment methods.

On November 26, 2024, the FEC published a notification of availability in the Federal Register requesting public input on a petition for rulemaking submitted by Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas.

The petition requests an amendment to 11 CFR §104.14(b)(5) to require records for contributions made by credit, debit, prepaid, or gift cards include documentation confirming a cross-check occurred between the contributor’s self-reported identifying information with the card issuing institution’s own information on the name and billing address of the cardholder.

The petition also requests an amendment to 11 CFR §104.14(e) to prohibit contributions from being accepted from prepaid or gift cards unless the information from those prepaid or gift cards can be cross-checked with the card issuing institution to confirm the name and billing address.

Public comments will be accepted by the FEC at https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/regulations/pending-rulemaking-matters-comment/ until January 27, 2025.

On December 18, a by-election will be held for the Lethbridge-West seat to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The seat became vacant in July following the resignation of Shannon Phillips, who began employment at the University of Lethbridge’s Department of Political.

On November 20, Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, Gordon McClure, had confirmed a writ was issued to administer a by-election in Electoral Division 72, which is known as Lethbridge-West.

While unofficial results will be available after voting closes on election day, the official results will not be announced until December 28.

On November 21, Quebec’s Chief Electoral Officer Jean-François Blanchet submitted to the province’s National Assembly a report of recommendations containing 30 proposals for improvements to the Election Act.

The stated goal of the report, entitled “For a New Vision of the Election Law,” is to strengthen the province’s election law’s fundamental principles: transparency, fairness, and integrity.

Notably, the report recommends fixed by-elections dates.

Among the other recommendations of Elections Quebec are requiring political parties to account for their pre-election expenses, extending this reporting requirement to any organization or person not acting on behalf of a candidate or a party, and banning government advertising and announcements as an election is approached.

The report contends the current guidelines limiting government communications in the run-up to an election need clarification to ensure more fairness between political parties from one election to the next.

Additionally, the report proposes requiring digital platforms to keep a register of the paid election and political ads they broadcast, similar to requirements in effect during federal elections.

On November 14, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm David Huitema as Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (O.G.E.).

By a vote of 50-46, the Huitema appointment to O.G.E., which oversees the executive branch ethics program in more than 140 agencies, is for a five-year term.

A director serves at the will of the president and could be removed by President-elect Trump upon taking office.

Huitema will replace Acting Director Shelley K. Finlayson, who took the position when the term of the previous director, Emory Rounds, expired in July of last year.

On December 16, a federal by-election will be held for the seat in the House of Commons representing Cloverdale–Langley City in the province of British Columbia.

On June 3 , the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Stéphane Perrault, had received official notice from the Speaker of the House of Commons that the seat for Cloverdale–Langley City (British Columbia) became vacant following the resignation of John Aldag.

Aldag resigned on May 27 in order to run in a provincial election in British Columbia, which he subsequently lost.

The date for the election was not announced until November 10, which signaled the start of the by-election period.

On November 5, six of the ward seats for the Council of the District of Columbia City were up for election.

Incumbent Brooke Pinto won re-election for Washington D.C. City Council Ward 2.

Meanwhile, Janeese Lewis George won reelection to her seat unchallenged for the City Council Ward 4 seat.

Wendell Felder won the Ward 7 current held by outgoing incumbent Vincent Gray, who endorsed Felder in the Democratic Party primary against nine other candidates.

Trayon White, currently a member of council representing Ward 8, also won reelection.

Additionally, the two at-large seats were won by Robert White and Christina Henderson.

On November 5, Oye Owolewa won his third consecutive election as the District of Columbia’s Shadow Representative.

Unlike the District’s non-voting Delegate to the House, the Shadow Representative is not able to vote in both floor votes and committee votes and is not recognized as an actual member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Along with Owolewa’s goal to achieve statehood for the District, the underlying goal of all shadow representatives, he has expressed an objective of ending federal taxes for the District until it achieves full political representation.

Owelewa defeated the Republican Party candidate, Attorney Ciprian Ivanof.

On November 5, Ankit Jain was elected as the junior U.S. shadow Senator for the District of Columbia.

He defeated Republican Party candidate Nelson Rimensnyder.

Jain replaces Sen. Michael D. Brown, who chose not to run for reelection.

While not officially sworn in or seated with the U.S. Senate, the main goal is to seek voting representation in the U.S. Congress for the District.

The senior U.S. shadow Senator for the District is Paul Eric Strauss.

Neither Strauss nor Jain receives pay or have offices in the US Capitol.

On November 5, Democratic Party candidate Eleanor Holmes Norton won re-election to the district’s U.S. House Non-Voting Delegate seat for the District of Columbia.

Holmes, who has held the office since 1991, beat Republican Party candidate Myrtle Alexander and two other declared candidates.

In her position as a non-voting member of the House, Norton can perform most of the duties and responsibilities of members from states but may not vote for or against the final passage of legislation