Legal Filings

Legal Filings

Ethics Watch Asks SOS to Review Reporting of Non-Itemized Contributions

Today, Ethics Watch asked Secretary of State Bernie Buescher to look into campaign finance reports that appear to show non-itemized contributions of greater than $20.00.  Because under existing law it is permissible to enter multiple small contributions from an event as a lump sum into the TRACER database, the public cannot tell whether a large non-itemized contribution is a lawful aggregation of small contributions or a larger contribution that should be itemized.

Ethics Watch observed multiple instances of non-itemized contributions over $20.00 in the July 15, 2010 campaign finance report of Clear the Bench Colorado, which Ethics Watch reviewed as part of its preparations to file its supplemental complaint.  Clear the Bench advised Ethics Watch that the instances represented multiple small contributions aggregated for input into TRACER.  Further review showed that several other committees have reported non-itemized contributions in the same manner.  Ethics Watch is asking the Secretary of State to look into the issue to determine whether a rule change or other action may be appropriate.

Click Here to Read Letter to SOS

Click Here to View Exhibits to Letter