§1055-A. Political communications to influence a ballot question
1.
Communications to influence ballot question elections.
Whenever a person makes an expenditure exceeding $500 expressly advocating through broadcasting stations, cable television systems, prerecorded automated telephone calls or scripted live telephone calls, newspapers, magazines, campaign signs or other outdoor advertising facilities, publicly accessible sites on the Internet, direct mails or other similar types of general public political advertising or through flyers, handbills, bumper stickers and other nonperiodical publications, for or against an initiative or referendum that is on the ballot, the communication must clearly and conspicuously state the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the communication, except that telephone calls must clearly state only the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the communication. A digital communication costing more than $500 that includes a link to a publicly accessible website expressly advocating for or against an initiative or referendum that is on the ballot must clearly and conspicuously state the name of the person who made or financed the expenditure, unless the digital communication is excluded under subsection 2. Telephone surveys that meet generally accepted standards for polling research and that are not conducted for the purpose of influencing the voting position of call recipients are not required to include the disclosure.
[PL 2023, c. 324, §15 (AMD).]
2.
Exceptions.
The following forms of political communication do not require the name and address of the person who made or financed the expenditure for the communication because the name or address would be so small as to be illegible or infeasible: clothing, envelopes and stationery, small promotional items, tickets to fundraisers and electronic media advertisements where compliance with this section would be impracticable due to size or character limitations and similar items determined by the commission to be too small and unnecessary for the disclosures required by this section. "Small promotional items" includes but is not limited to ashtrays, badges and badge holders, balloons, campaign buttons, coasters, combs, emery boards, erasers, glasses, key rings, letter openers, matchbooks, nail files, noisemakers, paper and plastic cups, pencils, pens, plastic tableware, 12-inch or shorter rulers and swizzle sticks.
[PL 2013, c. 334, §24 (NEW).]
3.
Enforcement.
A violation of this section may result in a penalty of no more than $5,000. In assessing a penalty, the commission shall consider, among other things, how widely the communication was disseminated, whether the violation was intentional, whether the violation occurred as the result of an error by a printer or other paid vendor and whether the communication conceals or misrepresents the identity of the person who financed it.
[PL 2019, c. 323, §22 (NEW).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 2013, c. 334, §24 (NEW). PL 2019, c. 323, §§21, 22 (AMD). PL 2023, c. 324, §15 (AMD).