Office seekers and those who spend money on issue campaigns are required to turn in reports that specify the source of funds and how those funds were spent. Later, those reports are poured over to make sure that everything was done properly.
Although not suggested by the Summit County Board of Elections, it's possible that there are people who broke campaign finance laws and won't be prosecuted because the state officials say they're not going after cases that are more than two years old. In Summit County, some unaudited reports are already three years old.
"In 2009, there were a total of 912 campaign finance reports filed and then in 2010, there were 563," said Summit County Board of Elections Director Ron Koehler.
LISTEN to more from Ron Koehler Koehler says that most of the 2008 reports are done, but 395 of them require additional information, whether further explanation is needed or the math simply isn't correct. Republicans have audited many of the Democrats' campaign finance reports from 2009, but Democrats haven't started yet on those filed by Republicans, according to Koehler. 2010 and early 2011 audits have not been started.
It seems that elections workers fell behind because of heavy workloads outside of the auditing process.
Board Member Alex Arshinkoff suggested hiring some temporary workers , if necessary. Board member Tim Gorbach says it's frustrating for candidates who want to make sure - n a timely manner - that they didn't make any mistakes.
The board agreed to survey other county boards to find out if they're having the same problem and whether they've determined the best way to fix it.
