The New York Public Interest Research Group on Wednesday released a report criticizing what it says is a lack of enforcement action on the part of the New York State Board of Elections with regard to state campaign finance regulations.
According to the NYPIRG report, the only enforcement actions taken by the state Board of Elections since 2007 for violations of campaign finance laws have been modest fines levied against campaign committees for filing late disclosure reports.
The report goes on to state that on an annual basis, hundreds of donors give more money than is allowed by state law, dozens of candidates fail to disclose large contributions received in the period just prior to Election Day, thousands of filings muddle the identity of donors or the purpose of expenditures through the inclusion of incomplete or incorrect information, and dozens of incumbents spend campaign funds for “what reasonable people would unanimously agree are non-campaign reasons.”
NYPIRG notes that more than $31 million in campaign funds previously disclosed by 2,328 active committees had not been detailed in any current filings as of Aug. 13, a month after filings for the July 2012 period were due.
