Q4 Reporting Deadline Extended; FEF qualifying deadline retained
Published on January 20, 2023
Deadline for Q4 Candidate Reporting Extended; Fair Elections Fund Deadline Retained
DENVER – As part of its duties relating to campaign finance administration, the Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder maintains deadlines for campaign finance reporting and qualifications for the citizen-initiated Fair Elections Fund. Deadlines for two related procedures related to materials submitted by candidates converged this week:
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January 17, 11:59 p.m. : The date by which candidates must submit campaign finance reports and any relevant cure information for Q4 of 2022 through the Clerk & Recorder’s Searchlight platform. Due to a technical issue by the vendor supporting the Searchlight platform, a small number of candidates experienced difficulties uploading or updating their reports. In response to this issue, the deadline for Q4 campaign reporting is now Friday January, 20 at 11:59 p.m.
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January 19, 11:59 p.m. : The date by which any candidate seeking to qualify for matched donations from the Fair Elections Fund must submit their qualifying donations. This deadline was moved from 55 days before Election Day to 75 days in order to keep it consistent with the narrow window for legally mandated candidate debates. The technical issue relating to Searchlight did not affect this workflow; the deadline to qualify for matching through the Fair Elections Fund has not changed.
All affected candidates and their finance staff have been informed of these issues as they progressed with frequent and direct communications. The Searchlight system is updated regularly to correct any inaccuracies and optimize information-sharing based on needs from both candidates, press and the public.
About the Fund
The Fair Elections Fund matches individual donations of up to $50 at a ratio of 9 to 1 out of a fund totaling $8 million, including the cost of administration. The April 4, 2023 election will be Denver’s first since the FEF measure was passed in every precinct by more than 70 percent of voters in the 2018 General Election.
Future payments to qualifying candidates will be made in conjunction with the filing of campaign finance reports and will continue through March 2023.
Information about participating campaigns, qualifying contributions and payment disbursements is available to the public via SearchLight Denver, the Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder's campaign finance database. As with the second disbursement in November, the public can also see how those campaign funds were spent: https://www.denvergov.org/SearchLightDenver
Additional information about the Fund, including contribution limits by office, campaign qualification status and other campaign finance information can be found at: https://www.denvergov.org/campaignfinance
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The Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder provides customer friendly processes that are efficient and transparent, records that are easy to access, and elections that are accurate, secure and convenient for voters.