When To Report | Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)

Reporting Independent Expenditures

Any individual, business, union, organization or other person who makes independent expenditures totaling $1,000 or more supporting or opposing a candidate or ballot measure must submit a C-6 to the PDC within 5 days and then on this schedule:

on the 10th of the month preceding the election*
21 days prior to the election*
7 days prior to the election*
on the 10th of the month after the election*.

*Only file reports when expenditures have been made since the last report.

The exception is political committees, which report IEs on their regular expenditure reports (C-4s) unless the independent expenditure requires expedited reporting because of its size and proximity to the election.

If an IE is advertising that meets both of the following conditions, the sponsor must report it on a C-6 within 24 hours of, or on the first working day after, the date the ad was published, mailed or made public:

The ads are valued at $2,000 or more, and
are presented to the public within 21 days of an election.

Additional independent expenditure ads presented during these 21 days -- costing any amount -- must be reported on a C-6 within 24 hours of, or on the first working day after, the date the additional ad is first published, mailed or made public.

If two or more sponsors are jointly paying for advertising, each sponsor needs to file a C-6, reporting their respective financial activity.

Reporting Electioneering Communication

Advertising must have all of the following four characteristics in order to qualify as an electioneering communication:

It clearly identifies at least one candidate for state, local or judicial office
It appears within 60 days of an election in the candidate's jurisdiction
It appears in one or more of the following media: radio, television, postal mailing, billboard, digital communication, newspaper or periodical
It appears either alone or in combination with other communications by the sponsor identifying the candidate, and has a fair market value of $2,000 or more

Electioneering communications must be reported within 24 hours of, or on the first working day after, the date the communication was first broadcast, mailed, erected or published.

If an advertising expense qualifies both as an independent expenditure and an electioneering communication, report it as an electioneering communication.

Additional disclosure for electioneering communications

Some sponsors will also need to disclose funding sources. Sponsors who received funds from any source in excess of $400 for the communication must disclose information about each source. They must also show total funds received from these sources.