Indiana Campaign Finance Filing Goes Online

Contact: Cam Savage
317-232-6533
Media@sos.in.gov

Indianapolis, IN - Today Secretary of State Todd Rokita introduced Indiana's first online campaign finance report filing system.

Candidates, political action committees (PACs) and political party organizations required to file campaign finance reports with the Indiana Election Division can now file "paperless" reports directly through a secure Secretary of State's Office Election Division webpage.

Previously, these campaign finance reports had to be printed and delivered to the Election Division office in Indianapolis or sent electronically as an email attachment. Reports for some committees were submitted in paper form, with these documents sometimes exceeding hundreds of pages. Once the paper reports were submitted, the data had to be reentered manually into the campaign finance computer system. The information contained in the reports, namely contributions to candidates and campaign expenditures, was then made available to the public via the Secretary of State's website.

"This is a major step forward in our efforts to streamline campaign finance reporting. Online filing will be the most effective way for many candidates and committees to disclose campaign finance information to the public and the Election Division and will save Hoosier taxpayers money," Rokita said.

The campaign finance software used with this system will allow committees to manage their campaign data, create required filings, and avoid common errors related to filing. All contributions and expenditures entered into the system will remain private until reports are filed listing these contributions and expenditures.

The software also provides functionality to allow users to extract data in a standard format for use in other software (e.g. Word, WordPerfect, Excel, Access).

The online system enables committees to perform many functions, including the following:

Maintain ongoing information about contributions and expenditures. Information can be kept up to date during the filing period and used to create required reports for filing.
Maintain a master list of contributors and payees.
Extract information into a standard format for use in other software.
Use information to create mailing labels, letters or for other analysis.
Receive an automatic warning, based on dates and amounts of contributions, when a "Large Contribution" report needs to be filed.
Create amendments to prior filings when contributions or expenditures that have already been filed are changed.
Provide an online schedule of reports required to be filed.
Search for contributions/contributors/expenditures/payees.
Run the software from any PC with Internet access. There is no need to install anything on the committee's PC.

To learn more about online filing, go to http://www.indianacampaignfinance.com/.

To gain access to the secure portions of the system, candidates, political action committees (PACs) and political party organizations will need to be given access by the Indiana Election Division. Contact the campaign finance staff of the Indiana Election Division at 317-232-3939, or email them at campaignfinance@iec.state.in.us.