The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 17 : Elections

Chapter 061 : Campaign Finance

Subchapter 004 : Reporting Requirements; Disclosures.

• § 2972. Identification in electioneering communications

  (a) An electioneering communication shall contain the name and mailing address of the person, candidate, political committee, or political party that paid for the communication. The name and address shall appear prominently and in a manner such that a reasonable person would clearly understand by whom the expenditure has been made, except that:

  (1) An audio electioneering communication paid for by a candidate does not need to contain the candidate’s address.

  (2) An electioneering communication paid for by a person acting as an agent or consultant on behalf of another person, candidate, political committee, or political party shall clearly designate the name and mailing address of the person, candidate, political committee, or political party on whose behalf the communication is published or broadcast.

  (b) If an electioneering communication is a related campaign expenditure made on a candidate’s behalf as provided in section 2944 of this chapter, then in addition to other requirements of this section, the communication shall also clearly designate the candidate on whose behalf it was made by including language such as “on behalf of” such candidate.

  (c)(1) In addition to the identification requirements in subsections (a) and (b) of this section, an electioneering communication paid for by or on behalf of a political committee or political party shall contain the name of any contributor who contributed more than 25 percent of all contributions and more than $2,000.00 to that committee or party since the beginning of the two-year general election cycle in which the electioneering communication was made to the date on which the expenditure for the electioneering communication was made.

  (2) For the purposes of this subsection, a political committee or political party shall be treated as having made an expenditure if the committee or party or person acting on behalf of the committee or party has executed a contract to make the expenditure.

  (d) If it is not practicable to meet the identification requirements of this section within an electioneering communication that is broadcast over the Internet, such an electioneering communication shall contain a link that shall be clear and conspicuous and that, if clicked, takes the reader to a web page or social media page that provides all of the identification information as required by this section.

  (e) The identification requirements of this section shall not apply to lapel stickers or buttons, nor shall they apply to electioneering communications made by a single individual acting alone who spends, in a single two-year general election cycle, a cumulative amount of not more than $150.00 on those electioneering communications, adjusted for inflation pursuant to the Consumer Price Index as provided in section 2905 of this chapter. (Added 2013, No. 90 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Jan. 23, 2014; amended 2017, No. 129 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. May 16, 2018.)