Jay Democrats could be fined

The Jay County Democratic Party faces possible fines after failing to file 30 state-mandated campaign finance forms since 2005. But before 2015, campaign finance rules weren’t strictly enforced by the Jay County election board and county clerk’s office.

Party and campaign committees are required to file annual, pre-election and pre-primary financial disclosures with either the county clerk’s office or state election division. The county’s Democrats have historically filed with the clerk’s office, whereas Jay County Republicans switched to filing with the state election division in 2010.

For committees filing with a county clerk’s office, punitive action for failure to file required forms is enforced by the county election board, which is comprised of the county clerk, one Republican and one Democrat. Currently sitting on the Jay County Election Board are county clerk Jon Eads, Democrat Bart Darby and newly-appointed Republican Caleb Lutes.

On Thursday afternoon, the county election board met briefly to schedule a hearing for considering fines against the Jay County Democratic Party. Eads said a review of campaign finance filings for both county parties found that the county Republicans had submitted all required forms to the county clerks’ office from 1994 until 2010, when the party began filing its campaign finance forms with the state election division.

The county Democrats did not file any campaign finance forms from 1996 to 2003 and from 2005 to present. The span during 2003 to 2005 saw then-party treasurer Paula Davidson properly file all campaign finance forms with the county clerk’s office.

But Eads said that because of the statute of limitations, only the last two years of missed forms would be considered when levying fines.

“There is a two-year limit on fining for failure to file reports,” Eads said. “The total fine could go anywhere from $6,000 to $7,000 based on what we decide as a county election board.”

The election board hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. June 22 in the commissioners’ room at the Jay County Courthouse.

Until 2015, the county election board didn’t fine candidates for late filings, according to former county clerks Jane Ann Runyon and Ellen Coats.

Runyon, who was county clerk from 2001 to 2009, said she didn’t strictly enforce fines on candidates who filed their forms late or incorrectly.

“When I first started I think we did. Then it seemed like nobody was caring much about (the forms),” Runyon said. “We did make some phone calls and tell people they needed to get them in.”

Coats, who held the clerk position from 2009 to 2017, said initially her office followed the same procedures as during Runyon’s tenure.

“They were not filing them way before I was the clerk,” Coats said. “We started cracking down in 2015 because the state was starting to audit the clerks to see if we were doing our job … They started cracking down on us, so then we started implementing (more strict enforcement) … The candidates were kind of upset and said, ‘Why are you doing it now, you haven’t done it for years?’ but that’s what we told them, that the state was (putting pressure on the office).”

The change in enforcement in 2015 led to fines being levied against candidates who submitted late filings. In 2016, the election board fined seven individual candidates’ committees $50 for late filings.

Indiana Election Division co-counsellors Dale Simmons and Matthew Kochevar said there are two different requirements for committee campaign finance filings. For committees that contribute to state or national level candidates, filings are required to be submitted to the state election division. Committees that only fund local campaigns can choose whether to file with the state or at the county clerk’s office.

“The counties follow the law based on how they read it as it was written in the state code,” said Kochevar. “We don’t have direct oversight over the counties. The state law says that county election boards and clerks follow the law how they see fit.”

Simmons added that there are variations from county to county on how the campaign finance laws are enforced.

“There’s a variation among counties and there’s a variation even among states,” Simmons said. “They each have the ability to come up with a policy. The county election board or state election commission has the authority to waive or reduce a fine.”

The state code specifies that county election boards or the state election commission can waive or reduce fines if the board “finds that imposition of a civil penalty required to be imposed would be unjust under the circumstances.”

Simmons said in an instance in which a county clerk failed to enforce campaign finance rules, he could see leeway on fines as a common sense conclusion. But he also added that the legal responsibility still lies with the committees to follow the law regarding campaign finance filings.

“A county election board is required to impose civil penalties (for late filings),” said Indiana Election Division campaign finance specialist Abbey Taylor. “The county election board can reduce or waive that civil penalty but only by a unanimous vote.”

Taylor said there are always committees that fail to file forms on time to the state election division. But failing to file forms for 13 years isn’t something she often encounters.

“We have about roughly 500 committees (that filed with the election division), maybe 70 fail on any given deadline,” Taylor said.

According to the state code, Jay County Democratic Party could face fines at a cost of $50 per day late and a maximum of $1,000 per form. The party last filed a form in Feb. 2005, and also failed to submit campaign finance filings from 1996 to 2003.