Email WV Code

Email: Chapter 3, Article 8, Section 5

§3-8-5. Detailed accounts and verified financial statements required.

(a) Record-keeping requirements. —

(1) Except for candidates for party committeeman and committeewoman, all candidates for nomination or election to state or local offices and all persons supporting, aiding, or opposing the nomination, election, or defeat of any such candidate shall keep, for a period of two years, records of receipts and expenditures which are made for political purposes.

(2) Every candidate or treasurer of every political committee shall keep detailed accounts of every sum of money or other thing of value received by him or her, including all loans of money or things of value and of all expenditures and disbursements made, or liabilities incurred, by the candidate or political committee.

(3) A person that is not a political committee and makes independent expenditures or electioneering communications must keep detailed accounts of every sum of money or other thing of value received by him or her for the purpose of furthering any independent expenditure or electioneering communication and of all disbursements made for independent expenditures or electioneering communications.

(b) Financial reporting requirements. —

(1) Every person required to keep detailed accounts under subsection (a) of this section shall file a detailed, itemized sworn statement, as prescribed in §3-8-5a and §3-8-5b of this code, according to the following schedule:

(A) On April 1 of each year, the person shall file a statement of all financial transactions dating from January 1 to March 31 of the same year, to be filed within six days thereafter;

(B) On July 1 of each year, the person shall file a statement of all financial transactions dating from April 1 to June 30 of the same year, to be filed within six days thereafter;

(C) On October 1 of each year, the person shall file a statement of all financial transactions dating from July 1 to September 30 of the same year, to be filed within six days thereafter; and

(D) On January 1 of each year, the person shall file a statement of all financial transactions dating from October 1 to December 31 of the previous year, to be filed within six days thereafter.

(2) In addition to the statements required in subdivision (1) of this subsection, a candidate or candidate’s committee shall file detailed itemized sworn statements, as prescribed in §3-8-5a and §3-8-5b of this code, according to the following schedule:

(A) On the 15th day preceding the primary election in which a candidate is on the ballot, the candidate or committee shall file a statement of all financial transactions subsequent to the previous statement, if any, to be filed within four business days after the 15th day; and

(B) On the 15th day preceding the general election in which a candidate, including an official write-in candidate, is on the ballot, the candidate or committee shall file a statement of all financial transactions subsequent to the previous statement, if any, to be filed within four business days after the 15th day.

(c) A person required to file reports pursuant to 52 U.S.C. §30104 is exempt from the requirements of subsection (b) of this section but is not exempt from the state-level electioneering communication reports requirements in §3-8-2b of this code or the independent expenditure reporting requirements in §3-8-2 of this code.

(d) Every person who is qualified as an official write-in candidate for any elective office shall individually, or by candidate committee, comply with all of the applicable requirements of this section.

 (e) Candidates for the office of conservation district supervisor elected pursuant to the provisions of §19-21A-1 et seq. of this code are required to file only the report required by paragraph (A), subdivision (2), subsection (b) of this section immediately prior to the applicable general election that is held concurrently with the state’s primary election.