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Accrued Expenditure – an expenditure that
is not paid at the time a service is provided. Accrued
expenditures are debts owed by the campaign to political consultants
or other vendors for good or services such as direct mail or
campaign signs.
Amendment –
a correction or revision made to a campaign finance report.
Committee – an entity established by a
candidate, political party or other organization for the
purpose of raising and spending money and filing required
campaign statements with detailed information about campaign
contributions and expenditures.
Desk Audit – a review of a campaign finance
disclosure report as it has been filed by a political committee.
In a desk audit, documentation other than the actual campaign
finance disclosure report, such as canceled checks, bank
statements and vendor receipts, are not reviewed.
Disclosure – in the context of
campaign financing, disclosure means making information about
campaign contributions and expenditures known to the public.
Electronic Filing – the process by which
political committees and candidates disclose campaign contributions
and expenditures in an electronic format. Electronically
filed campaign finance information can be submitted via a
web-based filing system, e-mail or computer disk. Candidates
typically use either a standard filing format provided by
the state, or filing software provided by the state or an
outside vendor.
Field Audit – an in-depth review of a
campaign finance disclosure report and other documentation
related to the campaign finance report, including canceled
checks, bank statements and vendor receipts, to verify the
accuracy of the report.
Independent Expenditure – an expenditure
for a communication which expressly advocates the election
or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, but which is
made independently of any candidate's campaign. An
example of an independent expenditure is a campaign ad run
by an issue organization in support of a specific candidate
for office. (Source: Federal Election Commission)
Itemized Data – breakdowns of contributions
received or expenses made by a committee, such as listings
of individual contributions with the contributor's name,
address, occupation, and employer . (By contrast,
an example of unitemized data would be when a committee reports
the total amount of all contributions under $100, but does
not provide detailed information about the individual transactions
that make up that total figure. )
Last-minute
Contribution or Late
Contribution – a contribution (often large) that
is received by a committee after the closing date for the
final statement filed before the election, but before the
election takes place. Many states require supplemental
reporting of individual last-minute contributions made
in the last days and weeks prior to Election Day.
Last-minute Independent Expenditure or Late Independent
Expenditure – an independent expenditure that
is received by a committee after the closing date for the
final statement filed before the election, but before the
election takes place. Many states require supplemental
reporting of last-minute independent expenditures made
in the last days and weeks prior to Election Day.
Loan Guarantor – a person who guarantees
that a loan to a campaign will be repaid. Often financial
institutions will not lend money to a candidate or campaign
unless there are private individuals who guarantee that they
will repay the loan if the campaign cannot.
Mandatory Review – the process by which
a state's campaign finance filing agency, often the Secretary
of State, is required to examine campaign statements that
are filed with its office, typically either through desk
or field audits.
Reporting Period – the specific time period
covered by a particular campaign finance statement.
Standard Filing Format – a uniform or
standard technical format set forth by a state government
which committees or candidates can use to file campaign finance
disclosure statements electronically. The standard
format ensures that all candidates' filings can be integrated
into the state's internal data system or system of Internet
disclosure.
Subvendor – a third party, such as a political
consultant, who makes an expenditure on behalf of a campaign.
For example, when a political consultant receives funds from
a campaign and purchases TV time for the campaign, the campaign
must report the consultant's expenditures if subvendor disclosure
is required. Credit cards can also fall into the subvendor
category because detailed information about expenditures
can be found in credit card statements. If the campaign
only listed the credit card company in its expenditure report,
the public would not know the actual expenditures of the
campaign.
Subvendor Information – detailed information,
including name and address, about subvendors.
Supplemental Filing –
a campaign finance report that is filed in addition to
regular campaign finance filings. Supplemental filings
are often last-minute contribution statements, independent
expenditures statements, or last-minute independent expenditure
statements.
Threshold – a monetary value at or above
which a candidate must disclose campaign activity. The
threshold can apply to the contribution amount that will
trigger a campaign to disclose detailed information about
a contributor. Or, the threshold can apply to the
total amount of money raised or spent that will require a
campaign to file campaign finance reports electronically. |
