Campaign finance requirements in New Hampshire

in New Hampshire

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Campaign finance
Federal campaign finance laws and regulations
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History of campaign finance reform
State by state comparison of campaign finance reporting requirements
Election policy
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New Hampshire campaign finance requirements govern the following:

• how much money candidates may receive from individuals and organizations,
• how much and how often they must report those contributions, and
• how much individuals, organizations and political parties may contribute to campaigns.

In addition to direct campaign contributions, campaign finance laws also apply to third-party organizations and nonprofit organizations that seek to influence elections through independent expenditures or issue advocacy.

Background

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is the independent regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign election laws. The FEC is responsible for disclosing campaign finance information, enforcing limits and prohibitions on contributions and overseeing public funding of presidential elections.^[1] According to the FEC, an individual becomes a federal candidate and must begin reporting campaign finances once he or she has either raised or spent $5,000 in his or her campaign. Within 15 days of this benchmark, the candidate must register with the FEC and designate an official campaign committee, which is responsible for the funds and expenditures of the campaign. This committee must have an official treasurer and cannot support any candidate but the one who registered it. Detailed financial reports are then made to the FEC every financial quarter after the individual is registered. Reports are also made before primaries and before the general election.^[2]

The Supreme Court of the United States has issued a number of rulings pertaining to federal election campaign finance regulations. In the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, the court held that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited. The court's decision also overturned the ban on for-profit and not-for-profit corporations and unions broadcasting electioneering communications in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before a general election.^[3] In the SpeechNOW.org v. Federal Election Commission decision, the first application of the Citizens United decision, the court held that contribution limits on what individuals could give to independent expenditure-only groups, and the amount these organizations could receive, were unconstitutional. Contribution limits on donations directly to candidates, however, remained unchanged.^[4][5] In 2014's McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision, the court overturned biennial aggregate campaign contribution limits, and held that individuals may contribute to as many federal candidates as they want, but may only contribute up to the federal limit in each case.^[6]

While the FEC governs federal election campaigns and contribution limits, individual states enforce their own regulation and reporting requirements. Regulations vary by state, as do limits on campaign contributions and third-party activities to influence elections.

Contribution limits

The table below details contribution limits as they applied to various types of individuals and groups in New Hampshire as of May 2015. The uppermost row of the table indicates the contributor, while the leftmost column indicates the recipient.

Candidate requirements

See statutes: New Hampshire Revised Statutes, Chapter 664: Political Expenditures and Contributions

Organizational requirements

Any individual who has publicly declared himself or herself a candidate and who seeks votes in an election is legally considered a candidate. At the time a candidate files for office, he or she must designate a person to act as his or her fiscal agent for the primary and/or general election campaign. A candidate may serve as his or her own fiscal agent. The fiscal agent, along with the candidate, must file all required financial disclosure statements.^[7]

Any committee organized to support a candidate in any election must be authorized in writing by the candidate or his or her fiscal agent before accepting contributions or making expenditures. The committee must register with New Hampshire Secretary of State no later than 24 hours after first receiving any contribution in excess of $500 or before making any expenditure greater than $500. The committee must register no later than 14 days after the formation of the committee. The committee must designate a treasurer, who must be a legal resident of the state. A committee's registration is valid from the date of registration until 10 days after the primary or general election, whichever is appropriate (the committee may be terminated sooner than this, but such terminations must be made in writing by the chairman or treasurer of the committee).^[8]

Reporting requirements

Candidates and candidate committees whose receipts or expenditures exceed $500 are required to file a number of regular disclosure statements with the New Hampshire Secretary of State. Generally, each statement requires the following types of information:^[9][10]

• Receipts
  • This includes an itemized listing of each receipt exceeding $25, including the full name and home address of the contributor, the amount of the contribution, date of receipt, and the aggregate total for each election for each contributor of over $100.
  • This includes an unitemized listing of all receipts of $25 or less.
    • For any contributor whose aggregate contributions for each election exceed $100, the contributor's occupation, official job title, employer, and principal place of business must be included.
• Expenditures
  • This includes itemized listing of each expenditure, including the name and city or town of the payee, the date paid, and the election for which the expenditure was made, including the specific nature and amount of each expenditure.

Reports may be filed electronically through the New Hampshire Campaign Finance System.^[11]

The statutory reporting schedule for candidates and candidate committees is detailed in the table below (these reports are due for both the primary and general election cycle).^[10]

If a candidate or committee has any outstanding debt, obligation, or surplus following an election, it must continue to file reports every six months until the obligation is satisfied or the surplus is eliminated.

Campaign finance legislation

The following is a list of recent campaign finance bills that have been introduced in or passed by the New Hampshire state legislature. To learn more about each of these bills, click the bill title. This information is provided by BillTrack50 and LegiScan.

Note: Due to the nature of the sorting process used to generate this list, some results may not be relevant to the topic. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation pertaining to this topic has been introduced in the legislature recently.

Election and campaign ballot measures

See also: Elections and campaigns on the ballot and List of New Hampshire ballot measures

Ballotpedia has tracked 11 statewide ballot measures relating to elections and campaigns.

1. New Hampshire Modifications Related to Elections Amendment (1976)
2. New Hampshire 18 Year Old Voting Age Amendment (1974)
3. New Hampshire Remove Provision Disqualifying Women From Voting for State Offices, Question 1 (1958)
4. New Hampshire Legislative Representation, Question 5 (1930)
5. New Hampshire Legislative Representation, Question 4 (1920)
6. New Hampshire Voting Rights for the Convicted, Question 7 (1912)
7. New Hampshire Election by Plurality, Question 8 (1912)
8. New Hampshire Voters Required to Read and Write English, Question 1 (1903)
9. New Hampshire Right to Vote for Untaxed Amendment (1968)
10. New Hampshire Right to Vote Amendment (1968)
11. New Hampshire Right to Vote Amendment (1921)

See also: Campaign finance agencies in New Hampshire and State election agencies

Candidates running for office may require some form of interaction with the following agencies:

• Secretary of State
  

Why: This agency provides and processes candidate filing paperwork for statewide offices.

State House, Room 204

107 North Main Street

Concord, N.H. 03301

Telephone: 603-271-3242

Fax: 603-271-6316

Email: elections@sos.state.nh.us

http://www.sos.nh.gov

Municipal offices

See also: Cities in New Hampshire

A candidate must file a number of documents with his or her home city or town elections office. Contact information for individual municipal elections offices can be found below. If a particular piece of information is not provided, it is because it could not be found for this municipality. To provide a link or information for the table below, please email us.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms New Hampshire campaign finance. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

See also

• Campaign finance regulation
• Ballot access requirements for political candidates in New Hampshire
• New Hampshire

Footnotes

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