The San Francisco Ethics Commission voted to adopt amendments to the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code.

The changes include electronic filing, filing of contribution disclosures no later than 14 days following the contribution, and updating filing forms.

The changes provide clarity regarding code sections created by the Anti-Corruption and Accountability Ordinance and update the regulations to match other recent changes to the code.

Additionally, changes provide clarity about various provisions of the Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance.

The Hawaii Ethics Commission will launch a new electronic filing system for lobbying registrations and disclosures beginning in January 2019, allowing lobbyists and organizations to register online for the 2019-2020 legislative biennium.

Lobbyists who plan to continue lobbying in 2019 must renew registrations by Monday, January 28, 2019. Commission staff are available to assist lobbyists who have already registered for the 2019-2020 lobbying period via a paper filing.

Lobbying expenditure reports for 2019 may be submitted electronically through the new e-filing system as early as March 2019.

The Connecticut Office of State Ethics will soon transition to a new lobbyist reporting system.

The new system will be installed on March 8 starting at 7am.

Users may experience some difficulty with the system during the installation process.

The city of San Jose is transitioning to an electronic system for filing weekly lobbyist reports.

To file weekly reports, a lobbyist must register to create an account on the Weekly Lobbyist Reporting Form portal at the city clerk’s website.

The prior weekly reporting form will be available on the clerk’s website until March 12.

Fines for failure to file a weekly report or filing a weekly report late will not be assessed until July 1, 2018.

The Tampa Ethics Office launched an online system for lobbyists to log meetings with city officials. The system replaces the paper lobbyist disclosure form.

Just like in the past, a log entry must be submitted within three days of a meeting with a city official.

Currently, the system functions only as a means to submit meeting logs, however, in the future it is expected to also allow for electronic submission of the annual expenditure report.

The Chicago Board of Ethics recently submitted two amendments to City Council, potentially affecting lobbyist filing procedures.

One amendment would require lobbyists to file all documents electronically in the Electronic Lobbyist Filing (ELF) system. The other amendment would establish enforcement provisions related to the electronic filing requirement.

Unless a majority of aldermen vote to disapprove them, the amendments will become effective on December 11, 2016. Once effective, the Board of Ethics will implement the new procedures beginning January 1, 2017. Paper filings will no longer be accepted after December 31, 2016.

In California, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a contract with NetFile Inc. to create a new electronic filing system for campaign finance reporting.

The new system is supposed to be more user friendly, which will increase transparency and allow the public to more easily access campaign finance data.

Electronic filing is not mandatory and the county will still accept paper filings.

On May 19, Secretary of State John Merrill launched a Vote for Alabama app, available to all iPhones and Androids.

The app enables all Alabamians to register to vote and locate relevant election information. Voters now have the ability to register to vote on the Secretary of State’s website and via the new app, along with traditional registration methods.

The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance has announced the dates for its new candidate and committee online filing system. The e-filing system, referred to as Reporter 6, will be available to filers on April 13. The current filing systems, Reporter 5 and Web Reporter, will not accept filings after April 10. All committee and candidates e-filed data will be migrated to the new system on the weekend between the closing of the old reporting system and the opening of the new system.

Existing e-filing ID numbers and passwords will allow access to the new system.

Gov. Pat McCrory signed Senate Bill 403 into law. The bill requires treasurers of political committees with contributions, expenditures, or loans totaling more than $10,000 in an election cycle to electronically file campaign finance reports.

North Carolina law already requires electronic filing for political committees making contributions in excess of $5,000 to candidates for statewide office or making independent expenditures in excess of $5,000 affecting contests for statewide office. This provision of the bill takes effect January 1, 2017.

Senate Bill 403 further permits counties, municipalities, and special districts to schedule special elections only when a general or primary election is already scheduled or when there is a general election requiring all county precincts to be open. This provision of the bill takes effect January 1, 2015, and applies to all special elections held on or after that date.

Secretary of State Jim Condos announced candidates, parties, and political action committees are now able to file financial reports online.

Use of the online system is currently voluntary but becomes mandatory on January 1, 2015.

Electronic filing is available here.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) released its package of legislative recommendations this week. All eight recommendations were unanimously approved by the commission with the hope Congress will implement the changes.

Some of the changes proposed include requiring electronic filing of electioneering communications reports, making permanent the Administrative Fine Program for the delinquent filing of reports, and increasing and expanding the prohibitions on fraudulent misrepresentation of campaign authority.

Noting other federal and state agencies receive “donated services and products for information technology projects,” the FEC would also like Congress to authorize the commission to have the ability to accept such gifts for use in continuing “its efforts to facilitate transparency in the federal campaign finance system through a state-of-the-art, web-based public disclosure system.”

Senate Bill 6414, introduced this week by a group of Washington senators led by Senator Joe Fain, requires all reports to be filed electronically. The bill contains several other strictures, including requiring the Public Disclosure Commission to make all filings available on its website, mandating each lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer sharing in an expenditure greater than $25 to report the specific dollar amount of his or her share, and requiring all lobbyist filings to include an itemized list of all payments made to a state official, regardless of dollar amount.

Another section of the bill implores the Ethics Board to define the limits of “infrequent occasions” in the context of the acceptance of gifts of food and beverages by public officials from lobbyists. This section of the bill comes after a widely-read report showing the state’s 50 most active lobbyists pampered legislators with meals totaling more than $65,000 over a four-month period.

A final section of the bill allows lobbyists to avoid reporting expenses for a legislator’s food at a meeting with the lobbyist if such expenses were paid by the legislator.

Photo of the interior of the Washington State Capitol courtesy of Eric Hunt on Wikimedia Commons.

The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Finance Disclosure Board has proposed a requirement for all campaign finance reports to be filed electronically. Currently, the only reports required to be filed electronically are those of legislative and statewide campaigns.

In order for the proposal to become law, it must be approved by the Iowa Legislature. An amendment to the bill allowing waiver by the state ethics board of the e-filing requirement for extenuating circumstances is likely to be considered by the House State Government Committee.