Secretary of State mistakenly fines Candidates
As published in recent newspaper articles
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/02/if-they-cant-get-right-how-will-they-do-officeolit/
and http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20081002/NEWS/810019964/-1/rss01 the Secretary of State has assessed fines to 30 Nevada candidates for failure to submit campaign finance reports by the August 5th deadline.
Many candidates are expressing outrage at the fines, claiming they filed the reports on time. A quick search of the Secretary of State’s website http://sos.state.nv.us/SOSCandidateServices/AnonymousAccess/ReportSearch/ReportSearch.aspx confirms this. The website shows scanned copies of the filing reports clearly received and date stamped by the Secretary of State by the due date. Among those wrongly fined were Assembly District Candidates Ryan Fitzgibbons, Don Woolbright, and Francis Allen.
Ryan Fitzgibbons said: “I was furious when I received the fine. $5,000 is a lot of money. Fortunately I kept the certified mail receipt showing I filed prior to the deadline. But what was my surprise to find out that the Secretary of State, the very organization levying the fine, had a scanned copy of my on time report posted on their website!”
Fitzgibbons, Candidate for Assembly District 17 stated: “This is frightening. The very people responsible for running a fair election don’t have the competence to check their own website before issuing large fines? I eventually received an apology letter from the Secretary of State rescinding the fine, but the damage is already done. They dragged a lot of honest candidates’ names through the mud with this debacle. Whose going to vote for someone they think neglected their campaign reporting?”