Indiana election officials may dissolve certain inactive campaign committees

The state election commission may dissolve an inactive committee through an administrative process. This applies to committees whose organization statements were filed with the election division, including state and legislative candidate committees, legislative caucus committees, and certain political action and party committees. The election division may start a case only if the committee filed no spending report in the previous calendar year, has never reported spending or last reported no more than $1,000 in cash, and required contact attempts came back undelivered. The commission must find that the committee is no longer functioning and that dissolution will not harm a contract, debt collection, or a criminal case. It may waive an unpaid civil penalty if further collection would be wasteful or unjust. The election division reviews committee lists by the last Friday of January each year. A dissolution order takes effect when adopted unless it sets another date.

A county election board has authority to administratively dissolve certain committees. This applies to the local committees and county-filed political action and party committees listed in the enrolled text. The listed committees include local and school board candidate committees, and certain political action and party committees that filed with the county board but not the election division. The board may begin a case if there were no spending reports in the previous three calendar years and the committee last reported no more than $1,000 in cash, if it filed a report. The board must find the committee is no longer functioning and that dissolution will not harm a contract or debt collection. The board reviews committee lists by the last Friday of January each year. A dissolution order takes effect when adopted unless it sets another date.