FEC Online Reports - reporting only when over $200 total?

[D.A.S.]

I was looking at the records the FEC has posted online for me so far, and I was surprised to discover that they reported far less than I actually contributed.

Then I read this:

If you contribute more than $200 to a committee, the committee is required to use its best efforts to collect and publicly disclose on a financial report your name, address, occupation and employer, as well as the date and amount of your contribution. Committees sometimes request this information even for smaller contributions, since the $200 reporting threshold applies to your total contributions to one committee during a calendar year. For example, you may make several small contributions to a committee during a year. Once these contributions add up to over $200, the committee must report the contributor information.

Here is my personal record of my contributions in 2011 (and don't laugh - I'm a student right now):

June 5, 2011 - $25.00
June 23, 2011 - $31.00
July 19, 2011 - $20.12
Aug. 20, 2011 - $20.12
Aug. 20, 2011 - $25.50
Sept. 8, 2011 - $25.00
Sept. 17, 2011 - $52.50

TOTAL SO FAR: $199.24

Sept. 30, 2011 - $35.00

And, the only contribution the FEC lists for me on their website is... $35.00!

This has some implications for those of us trying to figure out donations by State or Military donations:

1. The people who so far donated less than $200 will not be on the FEC website at all -- this means we won't be able to get accurate supporter count, and we won't be able to get an accurate $$ donation tally by State or by Profession (i.e., Military donations).

2. Any person whose earliest reported contribution is under $200 must have donated enough prior to said contribution to be over the $200 reporting limit, but we don't know the exact amount of their prior donations before reporting was triggered. In my case, before my $35 was reported, I could have already donated $199.99 OR $165! (since 165 + 35 = 200)

3. The people whose earliest contribution reported IS $200 or more could still have donated an amount less than $200 before reporting was triggered.

So where does this leave us if we want to get an accurate donation statistic by State or by Profession? Do we not have the access to the entire public record? How were military donations compiled for all the candidates for Q2 - was it done by a firm who retrieved the full public records from the FEC and is that even possible?

 

[Okie RP fan]

No one is going to laugh. Those amounts are pretty close to mine as I, too, am a student and have other priorities. The point is that we are giving what we can when we can. The biggest area we can help is spreading the word of liberty and Ron Paul to as many people as we can.

As for your original message, I have heard before that certain organizations (I don't know about the FEC) do only count donations above $200.

Sorry, don't know much else.

 

[Bender22]

I noticed a similar thing as well. When I looked up my total donations for RP in 2011 it was $200 less than what it should be.

 

[tsai3904]

The FEC may not show all your individual contributions before you reached your $200 limit but they do show your cumulative total.

Also, it is widely known that the FEC only publicly releases the records of people who have cumulatively contributed over $200. No one is able to get the information of people who contributed less than $200. Only each individual campaign has that information for all their donors.

Any information related to the statistics of campaign donors can only be gathered from the set of data released by the FEC.

 

[Philosophy_of_Politics]

I was looking at the records the FEC has posted online for me so far, and I was surprised to discover that they reported far less than I actually contributed.

Then I read this:



Here is my personal record of my contributions in 2011 (and don't laugh - I'm a student right now):

June 5, 2011 - $25.00
June 23, 2011 - $31.00
July 19, 2011 - $20.12
Aug. 20, 2011 - $20.12
Aug. 20, 2011 - $25.50
Sept. 8, 2011 - $25.00
Sept. 17, 2011 - $52.50

TOTAL SO FAR: $199.24

Sept. 30, 2011 - $35.00

And, the only contribution the FEC lists for me on their website is... $35.00!

This has some implications for those of us trying to figure out donations by State or Military donations:

1. The people who so far donated less than $200 will not be on the FEC website at all -- this means we won't be able to get accurate supporter count, and we won't be able to get an accurate $$ donation tally by State or by Profession (i.e., Military donations).

2. Any person whose earliest reported contribution is under $200 must have donated enough prior to said contribution to be over the $200 reporting limit, but we don't know the exact amount of their prior donations before reporting was triggered. In my case, before my $35 was reported, I could have already donated $199.99 OR $165! (since 165 + 35 = 200)

3. The people whose earliest contribution reported IS $200 or more could still have donated an amount less than $200 before reporting was triggered.

So where does this leave us if we want to get an accurate donation statistic by State or by Profession? Do we not have the access to the entire public record? How were military donations compiled for all the candidates for Q2 - was it done by a firm who retrieved the full public records from the FEC and is that even possible?

The American public is mostly brainwashed, so don't feel bad for the amount you contributed. The fact you're awake, aware, and willing is all that matters in the current state of affairs.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Yes, the FEC sets an arbitrary number for donations in the aggregate of $200 for reporting. I suspect that by next quarter the entire aggregate of your donations SHOULD be listed. That's how it works for the NC BOE. We have to report any donations over $50 in the aggregate, or $600 aggregated per quarter from event contributions of under $10. My treasurer thus reports quarterly aggregates per individual over $50. It's ridiculous because the practice harms individual small donors far more than big corporate special interest donors, but then hey, this is the same government that pushed the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection act as though it were "campaign finance reform" lol


ETA -- They only have listed my two $201.00 donations and I have given more. With all these small contributors I am sure it is hard to keep up. I suspect they will be broken out of the aggregates by January 2012 when it really matters.

 

[Carole]

Nothing laughable about your donations.

Congratulations and thanks to you for such a consisten effort. Amount is not important. Many of us have circumstances that limit the size of our donations. No one here would ever laugh at another for any contribution in any amount.

{{{{{{{{hugs and cheers for you}}}}}}}}}}}

 

[GunnyFreedom]

PS -- move to Hot Topics please as this is an issue that may be intentionally misconstrued by opposing political camps for political gain. Not because anything is controversial or done wrongly, but simply because we don't need to hand our enemies ammunition, even if they do have to lie and distort the facts to use it.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Nothing laughable about your donations.

Congratulations and thanks to you for such a consisten effort. Amount is not important. Many of us have circumstances that limit the size of our donations. No one here would ever laugh at another for any contribution in any amount.

{{{{{{{{hugs and cheers for you}}}}}}}}}}}

This too.

 

[D.A.S.]

Thank you for voicing support in regards to my donations, although...

The reason I started this thread was to clarify what exactly the FEC filing numbers on fec.gov provide for us in a way of data. I was actually trying to compile the Iowa data to see how we're doing support-wise county by county - for advertising purposes and whatnot. While on FEC.gov, I wanted to make sure I was looking at the right data, so I looked up NJ and found my record, and then I got to wondering that the numbers reported on FEC.gov aren't ALL of the donations but only those above the $200 (cumulative) reporting trigger.

Since some of the forum users have been compiling data about Ron Paul's military support, this subtlety I discovered about the data the FEC reports all of a sudden seemed more relevant. I guess in utilizing the FEC data to detects trends in donations, one has to qualify that the data is for donors who gave at least $200 to the candidates.

The FEC may not show all your individual contributions before you reached your $200 limit but they do show your cumulative total.

This is where I'd like a clarification. I did not see any cumulative total for myself. It showed only $35 for me - not (199.24 + 35.00 = 234.24) I was expecting. Am I simply not finding that data?

 

[D.A.S.]

Yes, the FEC sets an arbitrary number for donations in the aggregate of $200 for reporting. I suspect that by next quarter the entire aggregate of your donations SHOULD be listed. That's how it works for the NC BOE. We have to report any donations over $50 in the aggregate, or $600 aggregated per quarter from event contributions of under $10. My treasurer thus reports quarterly aggregates per individual over $50. It's ridiculous because the practice harms individual small donors far more than big corporate special interest donors, but then hey, this is the same government that pushed the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection act as though it were "campaign finance reform" lol


ETA -- They only have listed my two $201.00 donations and I have given more. With all these small contributors I am sure it is hard to keep up. I suspect they will be broken out of the aggregates by January 2012 when it really matters.

Thanks for explaining that...

When you say aggregates... Should I expect that the rest of my $199.24 will be listed on FEC eventually, or is $35 all they will list for me until further donations come in? I guess I find it strange that they would only report donations above 200 but won't report the ones below it.

 

[tsai3904]

This is where I'd like a clarification. I did not see any cumulative total for myself. It showed only $35 for me - not (199.24 + 35.00 = 234.24) I was expecting. Am I simply not finding that data?

Where are you looking at the data?

If you look here and search for your name, you'll see your $35 contribution and your cumulative contribution listed right under the $35.

You can also download the Q3 report as a CSV file here and open it in Excel. It will show your cumulative contribution in Column M.

You're right that any data gathered from FEC reports need a qualification that data is only gathered from contributors who have given over $200. Even with that qualification, it may not be accurate because like you said, the FEC didn't report your contributions until you reached a cumulative total of $200.

 

[D.A.S.]

Where are you looking at the data?

Searched for my name on this page:
http://www.fec.gov/disclosurep/pnational.do

If you look here and search for your name, you'll see your $35 contribution and your cumulative contribution listed right under the $35.

You can also download the Q3 report as a CSV file here and open it in Excel. It will show your cumulative contribution in Column M.

That is curious... I'm sorry I'm totally new at this, but how did you get to those pages - what menus did you follow on FEC.gov, so I know how to sort/search properly on there?

 

[tsai3904]

That is curious... I'm sorry I'm totally new at this, but how did you get to those pages - what menus did you follow on FEC.gov, so I know how to sort/search properly on there?

fec.gov > Campaign Finance Reports and Data (on the left) > View / Download Electronic Filings > type in "Ron Paul 2012" in the "Partial Name of Committee" field

You can then View or Download the October Quarterly report, which is the Q3 report.

If you click on "View", you'll need to click on "Schedule A Filings (ITEMIZED RECEIPTS)" then "FOR LINE NUMBER: 17A". This will display all the contributions sorted by date. It's not an efficient way to gather any data.

The best way to sort through the data would be to click on Download instead of View, then click on the first link to download a CSV file which you can then open in Excel and sort the data however you like.

To open the file after you download it, open Excel then go to Open File and select the option "All Files" to find the file you just downloaded. After you open the file, there will be a import wizard and in the second step, select "Comma" then Next then Finish and it will open the file. In Column F, if it says "IND" that should refer to individual contribution. If it says "ORG" it should refer to campaign expenses. Column U is the specific contribution and Column V is the cumulative contribution.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

maybe they taxed that shit.

 

[D.A.S.]

fec.gov > Campaign Finance Reports and Data (on the left) > View / Download Electronic Filings > type in "Ron Paul 2012" in the "Partial Name of Committee" field

You can then View or Download the October Quarterly report, which is the Q3 report.

If you click on "View", you'll need to click on "Schedule A Filings (ITEMIZED RECEIPTS)" then "FOR LINE NUMBER: 17A". This will display all the contributions sorted by date. It's not an efficient way to gather any data.

The best way to sort through the data would be to click on Download instead of View, then click on the first link to download a CSV file which you can then open in Excel and sort the data however you like.

To open the file after you download it, open Excel then go to Open File and select the option "All Files" to find the file you just downloaded. After you open the file, there will be a import wizard and in the second step, select "Comma" then Next then Finish and it will open the file. In Column F, if it says "IND" that should refer to individual contribution. If it says "ORG" it should refer to campaign expenses. Column U is the specific contribution and Column V is the cumulative contribution.

Thank you so much for this info!

I've worked with CSV files and already discovered that fec.gov makes them available when I was looking for States data.

You're absolutely right - the complete Q3 report via the CSV file is the ultimate way to get the donation data sorted and mined. Even though this data is only for people who have exceeded $200, at least there's a way to know their entire aggregate, whereas the rest of the FEC website seems to make this information difficult to access otherwise! This must be because the aggregate is date-dependent and so a different aggregate corresponds to different donations.