SBOE: Rakestraw must amend reports

Adam Ragan, a compliance officer with the NC Board of Elections, confirmed that candidates are required to provide complete information, including name, address and occupation, for all campaign contributions in excess of $50. The threshold had previously been set at $100, but the General Assembly lowered the amount to $50, effective Jan. 1, 2007.

Here's what Ragan had to say:

"“The statutory requirement is that for any contributions received by a candidate in excess of 50 dollars, the complete information is required, including the name, address and occupation of the contributor.... [The threshold] used to be a hundred dollars. That actually changed in 2006. It went into effect on Jan. 1, 2007."

Here's the session law in which the $50 threshold was set: Session Law 2006-195.

Under Section 5 of the session law, GS § 163-278.11(a1) (Contents of treasurer’s statement of receipts and expenditures) reads as rewritten: “Threshold for Reporting Identity of Contributor. — A treasurer shall not be required to report the name, address, or principal occupation of any individual resident of the state who contributes fifty dollars ($50.00) or less to the treasurer’s committee during an election as defined in GS 163-278.13.”

Section 9 of the session law states, “Sections 1 through 6 of this act become effective January 1, 2007, and apply to all contributions made and accepted on and after that date.”

Rakestraw will likely have to disclose the names of her contributors.

“At a minimum we would require amendments to be filed to those reports to provide complete information,” Ragan told me.

JW commented on a thread for a previous post: "I would submit that this was an honest mistake."

Probably so. And it probably won't be a stunning disclosure when we find out who made the contributions.

Still, we'd like to see those names.

UPDATE: April 1, 6:28 p.m.: On second thought, I'd like to withhold judgment on whether it was an honest mistake that the Rakestraw campaign did not disclose the names, addresses and principal occupations of 13 donors who made $100 contributions from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31, 2007, as listed on a report received by the Guilford County Board of Elections on Jan. 22, 2008.

Three previous reports received by the county Board of Elections from the Rakestraw campaign consistently list $100 contributions — 14 in all — even though none are dated and the handwriting is at times difficult to read.