Campaign finance investigations are classified in North Carolina. Experts interviewed by Carolina Public Press say candidates are innocent until proven otherwise, but confidentiality provisions passed by North Carolina lawmakers in 2018 ensure voters make informed decisions. It is said that there is a possibility that it may prevent the decision to be made.
For example, Lieutenant Governor. mark robinsonThe Republican gubernatorial candidate has been under investigation for three years for alleged campaign finance violations, according to . bob halla former executive director and campaign finance watchdog for North Carolina Democracy, who filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
About two and a half months before the primary election, Mr. Robinson is still under investigation for allegedly violating about $500,000.
However, due to confidentiality regulations, the Election Commission has not been able to respond to CPP's questions about the current status of the investigation or when it will end.
Some experts argue that the confidentiality rules followed by the board have benefits, while others say they could leave voters less informed when they go to the polls. There are some too.
“The challenge this creates is that it deprives people of useful information about someone who, in Robinson's case, is already in an elected position as a public servant.” brooks fullerDirector of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition.
This means that voters will not have complete access to information about a candidate's “civil and criminal history, particularly related to campaign finance violations,” before “determining whether he will serve in North Carolina's highest executive office.” Meaning, Fuller said.
“To have an informed and democratic voting process, we need a system that facilitates some level of information.”
In 2023, the commission received 21 complaints of campaign finance violations, according to . Pat Gannon Public information officer of the Election Commission. Investigators closed 12 of these complaints, but additional investigations have been ongoing since the previous year.
He said exact numbers were not immediately available on how many investigations are ongoing this year.
Prior to 2018, the law stated that an ongoing investigation was “not a public record,” but “that did not mean the Board could not release investigation-related documents, and the Board was not required to withhold documents.” said Gannon.
Since 2018, when the investigation became “confidential” under this provision, the electoral commission has been unable to release documents and “it has become illegal to do so,” he said.
Some have questioned the nature of confidentiality provisions and why the public does not need to know about the status of campaign finance investigations.
“Why did Congress prevent the state commission from even acknowledging the existence of an investigation when the information was known through some other means, such as a complaint, the person who initiated the campaign, or the candidate who filed the complaint? It is not clear that he or she is under investigation.'' hugh stevensa First Amendment and media attorney at Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych.
“This is a very comprehensive confidentiality provision.”
But Stevens said the concept that criminal investigations of potential criminal activity are confidential is nothing new.
“While it is clear that prior to the passage of this law there was at least some possibility of access to proceedings and documents, once the proceedings are subject to comprehensive confidentiality obligations, the public cannot access them until the investigation is complete. You can't know anything,'' Fuller said.
Ganon I confirmed this via email.
Gannon said that in some cases, the public had greater access to materials and documents related to campaign finance investigations because they were not “classified” before 2018, but he declined to elaborate on specific cases.
CPP also contacted the sponsor of the 2018 bill to ask why this level of provision confidentiality was necessary. Only one person responded.
“The first bill I introduced to Representative Torbett was a DOT/DMV agency bill. It was changed to an election bill in the Senate,” the congressman said. Frank Eyler, R-Brunswick, said in a written email to CPP. “When it comes to the question of why, it seems to be 'innocent until proven guilty.'”
Potential reasons for secrecy include a campaign making a claim with little or no evidence to support it, and an election commission later finding nothing to support the claim, but a candidate's reputation. It is possible that the government determined that damage had been caused, the paper said. bob orra former Republican judge who spent 10 years on the bench of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
“The real drawback is that the commission is woefully understaffed and underfunded to carry out this kind of investigation. I understand that they are experts and want to be careful, but they cannot carry out an investigation. It takes time and resources,” Orr said.
“It certainly limits the ability of the public and the press to learn in a timely manner whether there has actually been a violation and what the circumstances are.”
CPP contacted the board to ask if staffing shortages were an issue and whether it would impact the time it takes to complete campaign finance investigations.
“We have no further comment regarding staffing,” Gannon, a spokesperson for the Board of Elections, said in an email to CPP.
In response to another question about the total number of people working directly on campaign finance investigations at the Board of Elections, Gannon said four people work in the investigative division, which investigates various election-related violations, and four people work in the investigation department, which investigates various election-related violations. He said he was receiving legal assistance from the commission. seven employees on the team and campaign finance staff;
Fuller said the Board of Elections is also dealing with a significant amount of election infrastructure issues, from new voter ID requirements and other aspects of the election process that take up a lot of resources and time on campaign finance investigations. .
“We find that there are some arguments for confidentiality,” Fuller said.
“What I don't see an argument against is a system that makes it very inefficient and very difficult for people to get information about candidate research until the 11th hour right before a primary.
“There are things in this system that we can fix, that we should fix, and that our people deserve to fix.”
The public is barred from knowing details of complaints and ongoing elections board investigations, and can only access information once the investigation is concluded and proceeds to a public hearing.
If the Board of Elections proceeds to a public hearing, documents or materials will be released in accordance with the Board of Elections' Campaign Finance Complaints Policy.
related
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You can republish our stories online or in print for free. Simply copy and paste the article content from the box below. Please note that some images and interactive features may not be included here.
