The Marshall County Election Board members held a hearing Monday morning concerning a late campaign finance report.
In a previous meeting, the board had assessed penalties to those who were late, but later rescinded the fines as hearings needed to be held. One was held Monday morning. The other two are scheduled for Wednesday, December 20 at 8:30 a.m. ET in the Marshall County Clerk’s Office.
Election Board President Ralph “Rick” Huff said campaign finance reports are required to be filed by law. The last reporting deadline was October 20.
Robert (Bob) Byers filed a late report and explained to the board that he was on the ballot for Argos Town Council in this year’s Municipal Election. He admitted that his report was filed after the deadline as he was on vacation at Disney World at the time. However, he stated that he did not formally receive notification of the hearing concerning a fine for the late filing. He said he did receive notification of a fine, but not of a hearing.
Clerk Jenny Bennitt produced an email concerning the hearing and had sent that email on November 14 to an email address given by Byers on his campaign finance report. After review, Byers found that he inadvertently wrote down the wrong email address on the form so he did not officially receive notification of the hearing. He did point out that he was not notified by postal mail but the fine notification came by postal mail. Bennitt said the board was attempting to give him plenty of notice of the hearing by emailing the information, and she contacted the Indiana Election Division who indicated that email was a permissible form of notification.
Huff stated that if Byers felt he did not receive proper notice they could reschedule the hearing, but Byers believed the hearing should move forward Monday morning.
In his argument, Byers asked that the board consider that he is new as a politician and he is not typically late in filing this type of paperwork, but he was out of state at the time the campaign finance report was due and simply forgot to file it on time.
Byers was seven days late in filing the report. The fine is $50 a day which would be a $350 fine. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to fine Byers the nominal penalty of $50.
The December 20 campaign finance report hearings will involve Ginny Munroe and the Friends of Culver group who submitted tardy campaign finance reports.
The year-end campaign finance reports are due Wednesday, January 17 in the Marshall County Clerk’s Office by noon ET. Call 574-935-8713 if there are questions concerning the need to file a campaign finance report.
