Remaining FEF Disbursements Ahead of Municipal Election
Published on February 10, 2023
Remaining Fair Elections Fund Disbursements Ahead of Municipal Election
DENVER – The Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder will authorize the final two rounds of payments from the Fair Elections Fund (FEF) to candidates for the April 2023 Municipal Election. On February 17, the Office will authorize the penultimate round of payments from the Fund corresponding to the reporting period ending on February 6, for qualifying contributions made January 1-31.
The reporting period for contributions made February 1-28 ends on March 6. Due to the legal requirement that disbursements from the Fund be authorized no later than 14 days before the election, this will be the final reporting period where candidates may submit qualifying contributions for matching through the Fair Elections Fund. Candidates may still receive contributions after February 28, but those contributions will not be eligible for the match. The Office is scheduled to authorize the final pre-election matched funds on March 15. For both disbursements, the Department of Finance will continue to issue payment once authorized by the Office of the Clerk & Recorder.
The Office of the Clerk and Recorder is scheduled to release Fair Elections Fund disbursement information upon authorization on February 17 and March 15. Fair Elections Fund contributions will also appear on the Searchlight platform on those dates. Searchlight displays any contributions, including small donor contributions, on a rolling basis whenever a campaign committee submits or amends reporting through the platform. These contributions are displayed independently of the matched fund updates which our office makes to the platform upon authorization.
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 is the first municipal election since the implementation of the Fair Elections Fund. In the 2018 General Election, voters passed the citizen-initiated measure that created the fund.
To release matched funds to candidates, the Office of the Denver Clerk and Recorder must verify the residency and eligibility of each submitted donor using a multi-step, audited process. After the Clerk and Recorder’s Office authorizes payment, the Controller’s Office in the Department of Finance processes and disburses payments.
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. 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
###