FEC changes funding regulations for vote recounts

Only weeks before the November mid-term election, the Associated Press reports that in an advisory opinion by the Federal Election Commission, regulators set funding limits on vote recounts for both state parties in local elections as well as House and Senate federal elections.

External blog commentary, an AP story, and the official FEC pdf below the fold.

According to Justine Rhein of the Paperchase Newsburst blog, at issue was:

The contentious issue was whether a 2002 campaign finance law that eliminated unrestricted, unlimited giving to political parties altered those 1977 regulations. Commission Chairman Michael Toner and Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky, both Republicans, voted against the opinion, saying that the campaign finance law applied only to the election, not to recounts.

The decision reinterprets a 1977 FEC decision which did not include vote recounts and election legal challenges to campaign finance limits on contributions and expenditures. The new regulations set individual donation limits for potential recounts, just as limits are set for campaign activity. The article notes that current law allows an individual to donate no more than $2100 to a campaign, but notes that individuals would be able to donate more to a specific account to pay for recounts, though the article does not say what that financial limit will be.

Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub, quoted in the AP report, says that the new regulation will a hardship for candidates:

"This is going to make them work a little harder to raise the money," said Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat on the commission who offered a compromise to break a 3-3 deadlock. "But its doable."

The commission was tasked to decide whether provisions in the 2002 McCain Feingold campaign finance reform also imposed restrictions on recount financing.

Two Republicans, Commission Chairman Michael Toner and Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky, both voted against the recommendation, arguing against the timing of this rule change so close to the November 7th elections, and on the substance of the decision. As before, no union, corporation, or foreign nationals may donate funds to a candidate or campaign.

The actual text of the decision is available online. Here is a section typed in from the pdf (as cut and paste support has been removed from the pdf):

Question 1: Are recount activities conducted by a Federal candidate's recount fund in connection with an election for Federal office so that 2 U.S.C. 441i(e)(1)(A) applies to the recount fund?

Yes, any recount fund established by a Federal officeholder or candidate is subject to s U.S.C. 441i(e)(1)(A), and therefore any funds solicited, received, directed,transferred, or spent are subject to the amount limitations, source prohibitions, and reporting requirements of the Act. This statutory provision applies regardless of whether the recount fund is established as a separate bank account of a candidate's authorized committee or a separate entity. (pg 6-7)

Thus, it would appear that this decision limits individual hard money donations to campaigns for recounts under the presumption that any hard donation should be treated the same under McCain / Feingold regardless of its intended use. However, unstated is exactly how much donated money per individual is allowed under the new rules.