Campaign finance requirements in West Virginia

in West Virginia

Fiscal Budgets West Virginia state budget and finances Tax policy in West Virginia Finance Financial regulation in West Virginia Pensions Public pensions in West Virginia Pension health in West Virginia Civil liberties Affirmative action in West Virginia Campaign finance requirements in West Virginia Campaign finance requirements for West Virginia ballot measures Nonprofit regulation in West Virginia Education Charter schools in West Virginia Higher education in West Virginia Public education in West Virginia School choice in West Virginia Elections Ballot access Ballot access requirements for political candidates in West Virginia Ballot access requirements for political parties in West Virginia Political parties in West Virginia Ballot access requirements for presidential candidates in West Virginia Redistricting in West Virginia Voting in West Virginia Energy and Environment Energy policy in West Virginia Fracking in West Virginia Oil and gas extraction on federal land in West Virginia Endangered species in West Virginia Environmental policy in West Virginia Healthcare Healthcare policy in West Virginia Medicaid spending in West Virginia Effect of the Affordable Care Act in West Virginia Immigration Immigration in West Virginia

This article does not contain the most recently published data on this subject. If you would like to help our coverage grow, consider donating to Ballotpedia.

Campaign finance
Federal campaign finance laws and regulations
Campaign finance reform
History of campaign finance reform
State by state comparison of campaign finance reporting requirements
Election policy
State information
Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming

West Virginia 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 fifteen 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 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 West Virginia as of May 2015. The uppermost row of the table indicates the contributor, while the leftmost column indicates the recipient.

Candidate requirements

See statutes: Chapter 3, Article 8 of the West Virginia Code

Each candidate must file a Candidate Financial Disclosure Statement with the West Virginia Ethics Commission within 10 days of filing the Certificate of Announcement.^[7]

Each candidate campaign committee "shall keep detailed accounts of every sum of money or other thing of value received by him or her, including all loans of money or things of value and of all expenditures and disbursements made, liabilities incurred, by the candidate, financial agent, person, association or organization or committee, for political purposes or by any officers or members of the committee, or any person acting under its authority or on its behalf."^[8]

Candidates and "all persons supporting, aiding or opposing the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate shall keep for a period of six months records of receipts and expenditures which are made for political purposes."^[9]

The candidate committee should keep the receipts of all financial transactions for accounting purposes. The West Virginia Secretary of State or county clerk may conduct an audit, and the receipts would need to be presented for review.^[10]

Campaign financial statement requirements

Each financial statement required by the reporting schedule, other than a disclosure of electioneering communications, must contain the following information:^[11]

• the name, residence and mailing address and telephone number of each candidate, financial agent, treasurer or person and the name, address and telephone number of each association, organization or committee filing a financial statement
• the balance of cash and any other sum of money on hand at the beginning and the end of the period covered by the financial statement
• the name of any person making a contribution and the amount of the contribution
• the name, residence and mailing address of any individual or the name and mailing address of each lending institution making a loan
• the name, residence and mailing address of any individual or the name and mailing address of each partnership, firm, association, committee, organization or group having previously made or cosigned a loan for which payment is made or a balance is outstanding at the end of the period, together with the amount of repayment on the loan made during the period and the balance at the end of the period
• the total outstanding balance of all loans at the end of the period
• the name, residence and mailing address of any person to whom each expenditure was made or liability incurred
• the total expenditure for the nomination, election or defeat of a candidate or any person supporting, aiding or opposing the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate in whose behalf an expenditure was made or a contribution was given for the primary or other election
• the total amount of expenditures made during the period covered by the financial statement

Campaign finance reporting

Each candidate is required to file campaign finance reports until the candidate's campaign committee is closed. The transaction period is the specific time period during which the committee must track all contributions and expenditures for campaign finance reports. Financial activity tracked during each transaction period must be recorded on the campaign financial statement and submitted during the appropriate time period in which the report is due.^[7]

Campaign finance legislation

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

See also: Campaign finance agencies in West Virginia and State election agencies

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

• West Virginia Secretary of State, Elections Division
  

Why: This agency provides and processes nominating petitions and candidate announcement forms.

Bldg. 1, Suite 157-K

1900 Kanawha Blvd. East

Charleston, WV 25305-0770

Phone: 304-558-6000 or 866-SOS-VOTE

Election fraud hotline: 877-FRAUD-WV

Fax: 304-558-8386

Website: http://www.wvsos.com/elections/main.htm

Email: http://www.sos.wv.gov/Pages/contact-elections.aspx

• West Virginia Ethics Commission
  

Why: This agency provides and processes campaign financial disclosure forms.

210 Brooks St

Charleston, WV 25301

Phone: 304-558-0664

Website: http://www.ethics.wv.gov/Pages/default.aspx

Counties

An independent candidate must receive official credentials from the county clerk in each county in which he or she wishes to gather signatures. If a website is not provided in the table, it is because one does not exist 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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia
• West Virginia

Footnotes

	v • e State of West Virginia Charleston (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy