§ 3-9-4-4 — Filing, coding, and cross-indexing system; computer system; standardized software program; electronic submission

Indiana § 3-9-4-4

• Jurisdiction: Indiana
• Art. 9: CAMPAIGNS
• Ch. 4: Administration by Election Division and County Election

Text

(a) The election division shall develop a filing
and coding system consistent with the purposes of this article. The
election division and each county election board shall use the filing and
coding system. The coding system must provide:
(1) not more than ten (10) codes to account for various campaign
expenditure items; and
(2) a clear explanation of the kinds of expenditure items that must
be accounted for under each code.
(b) The election division shall develop and use a computer system
to store campaign finance reports required to be filed under IC 3-9-5-6,
IC 3-9-5-10, and IC 3-9-5-20.1. The computer system must enable the
election division to do the following:
(1) Identify all candidates or committees that received
contributions from a contributor over the past three (3) years.
(2) Identify all contributors to a candidate or committee over the
past three (3) years.
(3) Provide for electronic submission, retrieval, storage, and
disclosure of campaign finance reports of candidates for the
following:
(A) Legislative office.
(B) State office.
The election division shall provide training at no cost to
candidates to enable candidates described in this subdivision to
file campaign finance reports electronically.
(c) The election division shall notify each candidate's committee
that the election division will provide at the committee's request at no
cost a standardized software program to permit the committee to install
the software on a computer and generate an electronic version of the
reports and statements required to be filed with the election division
under this article. However, the election division is not required to
provide or alter the software program to make the program compatible
for installation or operation on a specific computer.
(d) This subsection applies to the following committees:
(1) A committee for a candidate seeking election to a state office.
(2) A committee for a candidate seeking election to a legislative
office.
(3) A political action committee that has received more than fifty
thousand dollars ($50,000) in contributions since the close of the
previous reporting period.
The committee must file electronically the report or statement required
under this article with the election division using a standardized
software program supplied to the committee without charge under
subsection (c) or another format approved by the election division. An
electronic filing approved by the election division under this subsection
may not require manual reentry into a computer system of the data
contained in the report or statement in order to make the data available
to the general public under subsection (g).
(e) This subsection applies to an electronic submission under
subsection (b)(3). An electronic submission must be in a format
previously approved by the election division that permits the election
division to print out a hard copy of the report after the receipt of the
electronic submission from the candidate. Filing of a report occurs
under IC 3-5-2.1-47 on the date and at the time electronically recorded
by the election division's computer system. If a discrepancy exists
between the text of the electronic submission and the printed report, the
text of the printed report prevails until an amendment is filed under this
article to correct the discrepancy.
(f) The election division is not required to accept an electronic
submission unless the submission complies with subsection (b)(3).
Upon receiving approval from the commission, the election division
may accept an electronic submission from candidates, committees, or
persons described in subsection (b)(3).
(g) The election division shall make campaign finance reports stored
on the computer system under subsection (b) available to the general
public through an online service.
[Pre-1986 Recodification Citation: 3-4-5-3.]

Legislative History

As added by P.L.5-1986, SEC.5. Amended by P.L.2-1996, SEC.99; P.L.4-1996, SEC.33; P.L.3-1997, SEC.186; P.L.176-1999, SEC.43; P.L.126-2002, SEC.34; P.L.45-2003, SEC.1; P.L.221-2005, SEC.19; P.L.164-2006, SEC.61; P.L.169-2015, SEC.73; P.L.91-2019, SEC.1; P.L.186-2025, SEC.16.