Increasing civil penalties for failure to file required campaign finance reports
Summary
SB 813 amends West Virginia’s campaign finance reporting enforcement provisions to make late, incomplete, or inaccurate filings more costly and more actively enforced. The bill raises the civil penalty structure from a daily $10 fine to a system with a maximum of $500 for a first violation and $1,000 for each subsequent violation in the same election cycle. It also keeps the existing criminal misdemeanor penalty for willful failures to file or grossly inaccurate filings, and it preserves the rule that candidates who fail to file required statements may be disqualified from the ballot or barred from taking office until compliance is achieved.
The bill adds several procedural safeguards and collection tools. Before assessing a civil penalty, the Secretary of State must give written notice of the deficiency and allow a short cure period, with the possibility of up to 14 additional days for good cause. The Secretary of State is also authorized to negotiate settlements, including installment payment plans, and must refer unpaid penalties outstanding for more than 30 days to a debt collection agency or similar agent. The bill further requires the Secretary of State to publish an online list of late filers and authorizes audits and rulemaking to implement the penalty process.
Impact
SB 813 would amend §3-8-7 of the West Virginia Code, changing how campaign finance reporting violations are penalized and collected. It increases civil penalty exposure for political committees, candidates, treasurers, and financial agents who miss filing deadlines or submit materially incomplete or inaccurate reports, while also adding mandatory notice, cure periods, settlement authority, and debt collection procedures. The bill would also reinforce existing ballot-access and office-holding consequences for candidates who fail to file required statements, and it would require public online disclosure of late filers for at least five years.
Sentiment
The bill appears generally supportive of stricter campaign finance compliance and timely disclosure, with its stated purpose being to encourage reports to be filed on time. No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no documented debate or recorded opposition in the materials supplied. Based on the text, the bill is framed as an enforcement and transparency measure rather than a substantive change to contribution limits or campaign finance policy.
Contention
The main points of potential contention are the higher civil penalties, the public posting of late filers, and the use of debt collection for unpaid fines, all of which could be viewed as more aggressive enforcement tools. Political committees and candidates may also be concerned about the short cure windows and the possibility of disqualification from the ballot for missed filings. At the same time, the bill includes mitigating features—advance notice, additional compliance time for good cause, settlement authority, and installment plans—which suggest an attempt to balance enforcement with flexibility.