Campaign Finance FAQs

Yes, statements must be filed electronically within the prescribed time and in the format established by the Secretary of State.

Registration must be submitted to the North Dakota Secretary of State within fifteen business days of the receipt of any contribution or expenditure made.

No, the email address used cannot be a government email address. 

The system utilizes North Dakota Login managed through North Dakota Information Technology for the login.

You can have your North Dakota Login emailed to you by using the "Forgot Login" link on the login page, this will use the information you used when creating your North Dakota Login.

You can reset your password by verifying access to the email or cell phone you verified when creating your North Dakota Login. This can be accessed by clicking on the "Forgot Password" link on the login page and providing your login name.

Edit your profile to update your information. You will be able to update the following details by selecting the appropriate option:

• Name
• Address
• Email
• Telephone
• Change your password
• Change your security information

What do I do if my phone number or email address has changed?

• If you still have access to the previous email address or phone number, edit your profile to update your information.
• If you do not have access to the previous email or phone number, contact the Service Desk for assistance.

All elected office holders need to have a campaign finance report and report their campaign finance activity.

Accounts need to remain open if contributions are received, expenditures are made, or the campaign finance account has a balance.

There is no requirement in law to have a treasurer.

Political Action Committees and Candidate Committees must have an agent who can be any individual, including the candidate. 

No transaction data was transferred for users into the new system. If you entered data for 2025 into the archived campaign finance system, you will need to re-enter this data into the new platform. If you do not have a copy of the data you entered, please contact our office and we will retrieve a copy of the data for you to enter into the new system. 

The ability to import transactions is not yet available. You will need to manually enter all transactions into the system for your Year-End Report. An import option will be available by the Pre-Primary Reporting period in 2026. 

All filers need to file a year-end campaign finance report which can be filed between January 1^st and January 31^st.

Pre-Primary and Pre-General campaign finance reports cover from January 1 through 40 days before an election. You have from the 39^th day through the 32^nd day before the election to file.

Candidates, Candidate Committees, and District Parties only need to file the pre-primary, pre-general, and 48-hour reports when they’re on the ballot in that election year.

Political Committees, Statewide Parties, Initiated Petition and Ballot Measures need to file the pre-primary, pre-general, and 48-hour reports every election year.

State Parties Only:

• Building Fund reports cover from January 1 of the reporting year through December 31^st. You have from January 1^st through January 31^st the following year to file.
• Post-Convention Statements covers from January 1^st of the reporting year and ends thirty days after the close of the state nominating convention. You have from the 31^st day after the convention to the 60^th day after the convention to file.
• Year End-Convention Statements covers January 1^st through December 31. You have from January 1^st through January 31^st the following year to file.

A gift, transfer, conveyance, provision, receipt, subscription, loan, advance, deposit of money, or anything of value, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination for election, or election, of any person to public office; or aiding or opposing the circulation or passage of a statewide initiative or referendum petition or measure.

A contribution is not a: loan from a bank or other lending institution, time spent by volunteer campaign or political party workers, money received for commercial transactions including rent, advertising or sponsorships, money received for anything other than a political purpose, products or services for which the actual cost or fair market value are reimbursed by a payment of money, an independent expenditure, the value of advertising paid by a political party, multicandidate political committee, or caucus which is in support of a candidate, in-kind contributions from a candidate to a candidate’s campaign. 

A contribution to a campaign that is not monetary. In-kind contributions are reported in the filers campaign finance account. 

A gift, transfer, conveyance, provision, loan, advance, payment, distribution, disbursement, outlay, or deposit of money, or anything of value, made for a political purpose or for the purpose of influencing the passage or defeat of a measure. Includes the transfer of funds by a political committee to another political committee and independent expenditures.

An activity undertaken in support of or opposition to the election or nomination of a candidate to public office whether the activity is undertaken by a candidate, political committee, political party, or any person. The term does not include activities undertaken in the performance of a duty of a public office or any position taken in an bona fide news story, commentary, or editorial.

Means a person that is not a political party, political committee, or candidate and which receives a contribution of money and transfers the contribution to a candidate, political party, or political committee when the contribution is designated specifically for the candidate, political party, or political committee and the person has no discretion as to the recipient and the amount transferred. The term includes a transactional intermediary, including a credit card company or a money transfer service that pays or transfers money to a candidate on behalf of another person.

Means an expenditure made for a political purpose or for the purpose of influencing the passage or defeat of a measure if the expenditure is made without the express or implied consent, authorization, or cooperation of, and not in concert with or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate, committee, or political party. Independent expenditures must be reported via 48-hour statements. 

Yes, any personal funds utilized should be reported as a contribution on your campaign finance report. This personal fund contribution can be paid back and reported as an expenditure on the year end filing. 

• Name and mailing address of contributor.
• Total aggregated amount of contribution.
• Date used is the date of the last contribution received from that contributor.

No, however, when the contribution is greater than $5,000, the contributor’s occupation and employer information must be reported. 

Anything related to a political purpose including campaign loan repayment and contributions to other candidates or committees. 

All filers need to itemized contributions when the aggregated contribution from a single contributor is over $200.

The itemized contribution limit for initiated petitions and ballot measure committees is $100.

Aggregated contributions under the threshold are reported as a lump sum. 

No, they cannot contribute directly to a filer but they can establish a political action committee to contribute money for a political purpose.

They may donate property or money to a state political party or nonprofit entity affiliated with or under the control of a state political party for deposit in a separate and segregated building fund.

They may make an independent expenditure for a political purpose, including political advertising in support of or opposition to a candidate, political committee, or a political party, or for the purpose of promoting passage or defeat of initiated or referred measures or petitions.

They may make an expenditure to a measure committee for the purpose of promoting the passage or defeat of an initiated or referred measure or petition or make an expenditure to any other person that makes an independent expenditure.

North Dakota Century Code requires the tracking of name, address, date, and amount of each contribution and contributor. If you pass around a collection basket you would not be able to track this information.

If the contributors state it is a joint contribution, both names, address, and contribution is reported as a single contribution.

If the contributors state it is a separate contribution, the names are listed separately along with address, and separate contribution amounts. 

Not automatically - contributions from a single contributor are accumulative. However, when reporting additional contributions in a report you need to manually find the contributor within the report and update the date and amount contributed. 

If the contributors state it is a joint contribution, both names, address, and contribution is reported as a single contribution.

If the contributors state it is a separate contribution, the names are listed separately along with address, and separate contribution amounts. 

• Political Action Committees
• Initiated Petition Committees
• Ballot Measure Committees
• State Parties 

All filers need to itemize expenditures when the aggregated expenditure is over $200.

The itemized expenditure limit for initiated petitions and ballot measure committees is $100.

Aggregated expenditures under the threshold are reported as a lump sum.

Candidates, Candidate Committees, and District Parties do not itemize expenditures. Rather, they report expenditures in categories. 

• Candidates and Candidate Committees
• District Parties 

• Advertising
• Campaign loan repayment
• Operations
• Travel 

Candidates, Candidate Committees, and District Parties report expenditures in categories on the year-end report.

All other filers report expenditures on each report filed. 

All filers except legislative candidates, judicial candidates, and district parties report beginning and ending fund balances. 

When the petition has been reviewed and accepted to be on the next statewide ballot.

Yes. When receiving a contribution from a contributor, the report must include information on each sub-contributor making up the total contribution, if that sub-contributor has stated their contribution is for the express purpose of furthering the passage or defeat of that ballot measure.

Information that needs to be included about sub-contributors includes:

• Name and mailing address of each sub-contributor that contributed over $100 of the total contribution.
• The total amount of each disclosed sub-contributor.
• The occupation, employer, and address of the employer’s principal place of business of each disclosed sub-contributor.

Pre-election reports, also referred to as pre-primary or pre-general reports, cover from January 1 through 40 days before the election. You have from the 39^th day through the 32^nd day before the election to file.

Year-end reports cover from January 1 of the reporting year through December 31^st. You have from January 1^st through January 31^st the following year to file.

Drafting reports cover from the date the committee starts their petition process up to the day they turn in the petition papers for approval.

Circulating reports cover from when the petition is approved for circulating through the date the petitions containing the required number of signatures are submitted to the Secretary of State for review.

A Committee may make an independent expenditure for a political purpose, including political advertising in support of or opposition to a candidate, political committee, or a political party, or for the purpose of promoting passage or defeat of initiated or referred measures or petitions.

All filers need to report a 48-hour statement when a contribution more than $500 is received within 39 days before the election to the day before the election. 

48-hour statements need to be filed within 48 hours of receiving a reportable contribution.

No, contributions made in the 48-hour filing timeline do not include previous contributions. 

Independent expenditures must be reported on any dollar amount within 48 hours of the expenditure being made.