Porter County Election Board debates how much help to give candidates

The Porter County Election Board pondered Thursday how much to help candidates beyond what’s legally required.

Consultant Kenard Taylor, who has been treasurer for hundreds of campaigns, walked the board through how he analyzes campaign finance reports to look for errors.

When he sees one, he writes a note on the report of what’s wrong and points them in the right direction to fix it.

Someone else reviews the reports he submits on behalf of candidates.

“Ultimately, it’s not your job to fix these things for them,” board President Paul Rausch said. “It is not the responsibility of the election office to fix these reports.”

“The onus is on the campaign committee. We go a step above,” Taylor said.

Last year, with no election, most campaigns did nothing. However, banks often charge a dormant fee when there’s no activity on an account. That needs to be reported.

So last year, Taylor took it upon himself to question the candidates if their bank charged a dormant fee.

One candidate in Hebron was charged $144 in dormant fees and got half waived after visiting the bank. Another in Washington Township, charged $60, got them all wiped out.

Taylor had sought clarity from the board on how far he should go in working with candidates to help them correct their reports.

Rausch convinced the board not to set limits on Taylor, allowing him to decide how much to go above and beyond what the law requires.

Taylor shared with the board some common and uncommon mistakes he’s seen.

“This year there is a candidate with two open committees,” one a municipal office and one a county office, he said.

The candidate’s committees had two balances, one with $1.43 and one with zero. It was the new committee that was running on empty.

Using the same checking account for two campaign committees could get the candidate into legal problems with the IRS and the banking system, he said.

Taylor held up a newspaper with a story about former Portage Mayor James Snyder to show how seriously the feds can take campaign finance issues. Taylor has been questioned multiple times by the feds about campaign finance reports, he said.

Taylor leads workshops for candidates on how to fill out the forms properly. The material he covers is updated as situations evolve.

Democrat Anthony Raimondi, who ran for Jackson Township Advisory Board this year, provided one of those case studies Thursday.

Raimondi filed his campaign finance report 20 days late and was subject to a $1,000 fine, the maximum, though the board reduced it to $500 because it was his first offense.

He filed as a candidate, got the paperwork, and saw that he wasn’t required to file the paperwork because the compensation was less than $5,000, and he didn’t plan to get contributions of $500 or more.

But because he filed the initial paperwork, that meant he was required to fill out subsequent campaign finance forms.

“We’re just the keeper of the records,” Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey said. Ultimately, it’s the candidate’s responsibility to comply with the law, but their political parties should help them, especially novices, she said.

The Indiana Secretary of State’s office has an election division with links to the candidate information guide, she said.

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Raimondi said he didn’t know he had to fill out the report until he got a letter from board attorney Monica Conrad.

“These examples are learning experiences for this board, too,” Rausch said, and will be taken into account for future training. “We learn, and we try to get better.”

Another lesson was when County Prosecutor Gary Germann said earlier this year he didn’t get an email with the errors to correct on his campaign form, nor did he get the mailed letter alerting him to the email.

Germann no longer checked that email address, and the mailing address had changed, too.

It’s up to candidates to update that information because that’s the only way the elections office can contact them, elections office Director Sundae Schoon said.

“Everything we do is a courtesy. We go above and beyond. There is no legal requirement,” Bailey said, to do things like point out errors on their forms and how they might be corrected.

Nor are the email reminders required by state law.

After Germann’s case, Schoon’s office will now provide copies of letters sent to candidates and their defective reports so the board has that information handy when deciding whether to fine candidates the full amount.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.