Campaign statements and registrations: filing online or electronically.

Assembly Member Addis frames a measure that links a shift to mandatory online campaign disclosures with a comprehensive rewrite of reporting terminology and filing mechanics, signaling a move away from fax and paper toward digital submissions for a wide range of reports and registrations.

The proposal replaces “campaign statements” with “campaign reports” and “statements of organization” with “registrations,” and makes online or electronic filing the default requirement for reports and filings administered by the Secretary of State and related authorities. It would delete the option to file most reports by facsimile and would allow certain reports to be filed by email, while requiring all filers to submit subsequent reports online or electronically once the online system is in use. The measure also removes a currently available short-form filing for small contributions and expenditures and eliminates the cap on the outstanding balance of a candidate’s personal loan to their campaign. In addition, the bill would remove the potential reimbursement obligation associated with local agency cost mandates and would require the online system to certify that it meets statutory requirements before going into effect.

Mechanisms include mandating online registration for committees and online campaign reports for both semiannual and preelection periods, with the Secretary of State’s system serving as the central filing and disclosure platform. The bill would require the system to be accessible free of charge, to provide machine-readable data, to preserve filings for a decade before archiving, and to permit public access with appropriate redactions. It would maintain existing penalties for violations but expand filing requirements to a new, consolidated digital framework, and it would preserve the statute’s enforcement and auditing structure, including the possibility of penalties or penalties-based programmatic actions for late or incomplete filings.

Beyond core filing changes, the measure adds new transparency provisions related to online advertising and political platforms. It defines “online platform disclosed advertisements” and requires platforms to notify the dissemination channel of an advertisement and to provide a disclosure name, candidate or measure information, and the committee that paid for the ad. It requires platforms to display disclosures adjacent to the ad and to support public access to a record of ads, including view counts and related metadata, with ongoing maintenance and machine-readable availability. The bill also introduces top-contributor disclosures for certain large campaigns, expands slate mailer reporting requirements, and imposes accompanying rules for the identification and disclosure of donors and contributors connected to online and slate-based political activity.

Implementation is contingent on the Secretary of State certifying and making available an online filing and disclosure system, with operative dates tied to that certification. The measure contemplates coordination with local governments on online filing adoption and allows for phased or conditional implementation tied to the system’s readiness. It includes provisions to avoid reimbursement obligations for local agencies stemming from the new regime and asserts that the legislation furthers the purposes of the Political Reform Act. Taken together, the proposal seeks to enhance public access to campaign data, standardize digital reporting across filers, and extend digital disclosures to new areas of political communications and advertising.