Campaign Finance Reporting & Filing

Meeting Your Reporting Obligations

All candidates and political committees must periodically report their campaign contributions and expenditures. Candidates for statewide office, or for state legislative offices, or for Court of Common Pleas must file their original reports with the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Harrisburg. They are also required to file a copy with the local election office in the county in which they reside.

All local candidates must file their reports with the county elections office in the county where nominating petitions were filed for that office.

Who Must File

• Any candidate who failed to complete the Waiver of Expense Account Affidavit on their Nomination Petition
• Any candidate that formed a political committee or became attached to a political committee by completing an Authorization Form to receive funds on their behalf.
• All party / candidate committees registered with the state or local county election board office

When To File

A Campaign Finance Reporting Schedule is mandated by law and due dates are specified as follows:

• Sixth Tuesday Pre-Primary / Election (For Statewide Offices only)
• Second Friday Pre-Primary / Election
• 30-Day Post Primary / Election
• Annual Report

View a detailed list of reporting dates.

How to Form a Committee

First you must appoint a chairperson and a treasurer. A candidate can be his/her own chairperson, but not his/her own treasurer. Next you must complete and file with your election board office a Political Committee Registration Statement (Form DSEB-500). If you are registering a “candidate committee” the candidate must complete and file along with the Registration Statement an Authorization for a political committee to Receive Funds on Behalf of a Candidate (Form DSEB-501).

Forms

• Form DSEB-500: Political Committee Registration Statement
• Form DSEB-501: Authorization for a Political Committee to Receive Funds on Behalf of a Candidate
• Form DSEB-502: Campaign Finance Report - Long Form (For Candidates or Committees which raise or spend more than $250 in a reporting period)
• Form DSEB-502R: Unsworn Declaration for Campaign Finance Reports (Unsworn declaration Campaign Finance Statements may be filled out in lieu of full reports, the Non-Bid Contract Reporting Form, or Independent Expenditure Reports and do not need to be notarized.)
• Form DSEB-503: Campaign Finance Statement - Short Form (For Candidates or Committees which raise or spend under $250 in a reporting period)
• Form DSEB-503S: Unsworn Declaration Campaign Finance Statements (Unsworn declaration Campaign Finance Statements may be filled out in lieu of full reports, the Non-Bid Contract Reporting Form, or Independent Expenditure Reports and do not need to be notarized.)
• Form DSEB-505: Independent Expenditure Report (An expenditure not in cooperation or consultation with any candidate or candidate’s political committee to influence the outcome of an election)