Types Of Reports

There are essentially five main types of campaign finance reports filed by most candidates, committees, and political parties:

A pre-election report is due by 4 p.m. 12 days before an election and reflects contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the twentieth day before the election.
A post-election report is due by 4 p.m. 38 days after the election and reflects contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the last previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the seventh day before the filing of the statement.
A semiannual report is due by 4 p.m on the last business day of July of every year to reflect contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the last day of June that year. A semiannual report is not required for a year in which the entity has filed a post-primary report. Please refer to the Ohio Campaign Handbook to determine whether a committee must file a semiannual in a year in which the post-primary report was not filed.
An annual report is due by 4 p.m. on the last business day of January of every year to reflect contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the last previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the last day of December of the previous year. An annual report is not required for a year in which the entity has filed a post-general election report.
A monthly report is filed by statewide candidates only for the months of July, August, and September when statewide candidates are on the general election ballot. The monthly statements show contributions only for each calendar month and are filed by the third business day of the following month.

Federal State and Local PACs (FLSs) – these are federal committees that wish to make disbursements to Ohio non-federal candidates, committees and political parties. They file a partial copy of the report they file with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). These reports are sequentially designated as Federal, Federal1, Federal2, etc. These reports will not have a complete cover page and will contain only the disbursements to Ohio non-federal committees.

Other reports- there are other types of reports that will show up in the disclosure database without any numeric information. These represent the filing of various types of forms required by the statute by committees. These filings include:

Designation of Treasurer (Form 30-D) – the registration form for committees allowing a committee to start raising contributions and making expenditures. This form is also used to update committee information such as treasurer or address.
Special – this form is used to reflect the filing by a committee of an Electronic Filing Registration (Form 30-D-1)
Other – used to reflect the filing by a committee of some sort of correspondence or documents.
Termination – used to indicate that the committee is now in inactive status. Not all inactive committees file Termination reports. Some committees will indicate their inactive status with the filing of a regular report. Some Termination reports will have contribution and expenditure data.
Waiver of Declaration of Filing Day Finances (Form 31-AA), Permissive Funds Report and Declaration of Filing Day Finances (Form 31-W) - these are special reports that candidates for statewide and general assembly file in the year in which they submit petitions.
Statement of Organization – this is the registration form for committees filing with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). A federal committee that wishes to make disbursements to Ohio non-federal candidates, committees and political parties (FSL) must submit a copy of the Statement of Organization prior to making those disbursements.

Special Entity Type Reports

The Ohio Secretary of State also receives campaign finance filings from several other types of committees. These include candidates for one of the State Retirement Boards (STB), Electioneering Communication Entities and Transition Funds. These committees will file the following reports types:

State Retirement Boards – these candidates will file Pre & Post Special Elections Reports.

Electioneering Communication Entities – Electioneering Communication filings do not have a report type. The date of the filing serves as the report type. These entities file a Notice of Intent to Make Electioneering Communication Disbursements (Form 31-EC) to get started.

Transition Funds - These entities will file a series of reports which will be labeled Transition 1, Transition 2, etc. These committees file a Designation of Transition Fund Treasurer (Form 30-T) to get started.

Please see the Campaign Finance Handbook for more information on the various reporting entities and their reporting requirements.