California special election reporting: 34th district (2017)

The Special General Election to fill the 34th Congressional District House seat vacated by Representative Xavier Becerra will be held April 4, 2017. Under California law, a majority winner in the Special General Election is declared elected. Should no candidate achieve a majority vote, a Special Runoff Election will be held on June 6, 2017, between the top two vote-getters in the Special General Election.

To find out which reports your committee must file in 2017, check the Filing Frequency by Type of Filer section of our 2017 reporting dates web page. In general, campaign committees file quarterly reports, and PACs and party committees file on a semi-annual basis (if they filed quarterly reports in 2016) or a monthly basis (certain party committees and all committees that filed monthly in 2016).

Filing schedule for candidates

Candidate committees involved in these elections must follow this reporting schedule:

If only the Special General (04/04/17) is held, committees must file:

Committees involved in both the Special General (04/04/17) and the Special Runoff (06/06/17) must file:

If both the General and Runoff elections are held, committees involved in only the Special General (04/04/17) must file:

Additional details are available at https://transition.fec.gov/pages/report_notices/2017/ca34.shtml.

Filing schedule for PACs and party committees

PACs and party committees that file on a semi-annual basis in 2017 and participate in these elections follow the same reporting schedule, except the Post-Runoff Report (if necessary) is due July 22, with a June 30 close of books. The Mid-Year Report is waived for those PACs and parties that file the Post-Runoff Report.

PACs and party committees that file monthly should continue to file according to their regular filing schedule.

Additional details are available at 82 Fed. Reg. 10906 (February 16, 2017).

Filing electronically

Reports filed electronically must be received and validated by the Commission by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the applicable filing deadline. Electronic filers who instead file on paper or submit an electronic report that does not pass the Commission’s validation program by the filing deadline will be considered nonfilers and may be subject to enforcement actions, including administrative fines.

Timely filing for paper filers

Registered and Certified Mail. Reports sent by registered or certified mail are considered to be filed on the date of their postmark. See 52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(2)(A)(i), (a)(4)(A)(ii) and (a)(5); 11 CFR 104.5(e). Accordingly, pre-election reports sent by registered or certified mail must be postmarked on or before the mailing deadline to be considered timely filed; other reports must be postmarked by the filing deadline. 11 CFR 100.19(b). A committee sending its reports by certified or registered mail should keep its mailing receipt with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postmark as proof of mailing because the USPS does not keep complete records of items sent by certified or registered mail. 11 CFR 104.5(i).

Overnight Mail. Reports filed via overnight mail will be considered timely filed if the report is received by the delivery service on or before the mailing/filing deadline. “Overnight mail” includes Priority or Priority Express Mail having a delivery confirmation, or an overnight service with which the report is scheduled for next business day delivery and is recorded in the service’s online tracking system.

A committee sending its reports by Priority Mail or Priority Express Mail, or by an overnight delivery service, should keep its proof of mailing or other means of transmittal of its reports. 52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(5) and 11 CFR 100.19 and 104.5(e).

Other Means of Filing. Reports sent by other means—including first class mail and courier—must be received by the FEC before the Commission’s close of business on the filing deadline. 11 CFR 100.19 and 104.5(e). (If the deadline falls on a weekend or federal holiday, such filers should plan accordingly and file reports by the close of business on the last business day before the filing deadline.)

Forms are available for downloading and printing at the FEC’s website.

48-Hour contribution notices

A participating candidate’s principal campaign committee must file a 48-hour notice each time it receives a contribution of $1,000 or more per source from March 16 through April 1 for the Special General Election, and between May 18 through June 3 for the Special Runoff Election, if that election is held.

24- and 48-Hour reports of independent expenditures

Political committees and other persons must file 24-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate $1,000 or more from March 16 through April 2 for the Special General, and between May 18 through June 4 for the Special Runoff (if held). This requirement is in addition to that of filing 48-hour reports of independent expenditures that aggregate $10,000 or more up to and including the 20th day before an election. The 48-hour reporting requirement applies to independent expenditures that aggregate at or above $10,000 prior to March 16 for the Special General, and prior to May 18 for the Special Runoff (if held).

Electioneering communications

The 60-day electioneering communications period for the Special General Election runs from February 3 through April 4. The 60-day electioneering communications period for the Special Runoff Election (if held) runs from April 7 through June 6.

Disclosure of lobbyist bundling activity

Campaign committees, party committees and leadership PACs that are otherwise required to file reports in connection with the special elections must simultaneously file FEC Form 3L if they receive two or more bundled contributions from any lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant PAC that aggregate in excess of $17,900 during the special election reporting periods. 11 CFR 104.22(a)(5)(v) and (b).

Resources:

• California 34th district special election prior notice
  
• 2017 reporting dates
  
• California 34th district special election compliance page
• Federal Register notice