Campaign finance requirements in Utah

in Utah

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Campaign finance
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History of campaign finance reform
State by state comparison of campaign finance reporting requirements
Election policy
State information
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Utah 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 rules governing federal election campaigns and contributions have evolved over the past generation as a result of a number of Supreme Court decisions. 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 Utah as of May 2015. The uppermost row of the table indicates the contributor, while the leftmost column indicates the recipient.

Candidate requirements

See statutes: Title 20A, Chapter 11 "Campaign Financial Reporting Requirements"

A "candidate" who is required to file campaign finance reports is defined as any one of the following:

• an individual who files a declaration of candidacy for a public office
• an individual who receives contributions, makes expenditures or gives consent for any other person to receive contributions or make expenditures to bring about the person's nomination or election to a public office^[7]

After becoming a candidate as outlined above, the candidate is required to report contributions received and expenditures made to bring about his or her nomination or election. These reports must be received in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor by close of business on the due date.^[7]

Candidates are required to file financial disclosure reports electronically by using the Utah Campaign Finance Disclosures website.^[7]

Campaign finance requirements for candidates

Each state office candidate must select no more than one personal campaign committee, consisting of one or more persons, to receive contributions, make expenditures and file reports connected with the candidate's campaign. A state office candidate may serve as his or her own campaign committee.^[8]

The candidate must file a written statement signed by the candidate or authorized member of the candidate's personal campaign committee with the lieutenant governor that informs the lieutenant governor that the candidate's personal campaign committee has been selected and provides the name and address of each member and the secretary of the committee.^[8]

The candidate must file interim campaign finance reports in any year in which the candidate has filed a declaration of candidacy form for public office. Each report must include the following information:

• the net balance of the last summary report, if any
• a single figure equal to the total amount of receipts reported on all prior interim reports, if any, during the calendar year in which the interim report is due
• a single figure equal to the total amount of expenditures reported on all prior interim reports, if any, filed during the calendar year in which the interim report is due
• a detailed listing of each contribution and public service assistance received since the last summary report that has not been reported in detail on a prior interim report
• for each non-monetary contribution:
  • the fair market value of the contribution with that information provided by the contributor
  • a specific description of the contribution
• a detailed listing of each expenditure made since the last summary report that has not been reported in detail on a prior interim report
• for each non-monetary expenditure, the fair market value of the expenditure
• a net balance for the year consisting of the net balance from the last summary report, if any, plus all receipts since the last summary report minus all expenditures since the last summary report^[9]

Each state office candidate and the candidate's campaign committee is active and subject to year-end summary reporting requirements until the candidate has filed a statement of dissolution with the lieutenant governor stating that:

• the candidate or campaign committee is no longer receiving contributions and is no longer making expenditures
• the ending balance on the last summary report filed is zero and the balance in the separate bank account is zero
• a final summary report showing a zero balance is attached to the statement of dissolution^[10]
• A state office candidate who fails to file a financial statement by the deadline is subject to fines.^[11]

Reporting schedule

Campaign finance legislation

The following is a list of recent campaign finance bills that have been introduced in or passed by the Utah 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 Utah ballot measures

Ballotpedia has tracked 5 statewide ballot measures relating to elections and campaigns.

1. Utah Authorization of Recall, Initiative B (1976)
2. Utah Legislative Eligibility, Proposition 1 (1998)
3. Utah Eliminate Felons' Right to Vote, Proposition 4 (1998)
4. Utah Legislator Eligibility, Amendment B (2010)
5. Utah Election of Appointed Lieutenant Governor, Amendment B (2014)

See also: Campaign finance agencies in Utah and State election agencies

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

• State of Utah Elections Office
  

Why: This agency provides and processes nominating petitions, declaration of candidacy forms and campaign finance forms and reports.

Office of the Lt. Governor

State Capitol, Suite 220

350 N. State Street

Salt Lake City, Utah 84114

Phone: 801.538.1041

Fax: 801.538.1133

Website: http://elections.utah.gov/

Email: elections@utah.gov

Counties

See also: Counties in Utah

A candidate may obtain a number of documents from the elections office in his or her home county An independent candidate will need to file documents with his or her home county clerk. Individual county contact information can be found below.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Utah 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 Utah
• Utah

Footnotes

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