Considering possible election law violations
Enforcement cases can come from audits, complaints, referrals or self-submissions:
- Audits: The agency’s monitoring process may detect potential violations through a review of a committee’s reports or through a Commission audit.
- Complaints: Potential violations may be brought to the Commission’s attention through the complaint process. This process enables anyone to file a sworn complaint alleging violations and explaining the basis for the allegations.
- Referrals: The referral process enables other government agencies to refer possible violations to the FEC.
- Self-submissions: Any person or entity who believes it has committed a violation may bring the matter sua sponte to the Commission’s attention.
Audits of political committees
Generally, the Commission audits a committee under two circumstances:
- When a committee participates in publicly financed presidential campaigns, or
- When it appears that a committee has not met substantial compliance for reporting.
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Findings and issue categories
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Complaints
Anyone can submit a complaint if they believe a violation of the law has occurred or is about to occur.
Programs for handling enforcement cases
Enforcement cases are primarily handled by the Office of General Counsel and are known as Matters Under Review (MURs).
Other programs designed to augment the Office of General Counsel's enforcement role include the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program and the Administrative Fine Program.
Matters Under Review (MURs)
Because the public has the right to know the outcome of any enforcement proceeding, redacted files for closed enforcement matters are made available to the public within 30 days after the parties involved have been notified that the entire matter has been closed.
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The MUR search feature includes all cases dating back to 1977. You can search all closed FEC MURs using keywords, MUR numbers, names of respondents and more. For additional search filters, you can still search MURs using our legacy FEC Enforcement Query System.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Program
Alternative Dispute Resolution is a series of procedures for resolving enforcement matters through mutual consent of the parties involved.
Administrative Fine Program
The Administrative Fine Program assesses civil money penalties for late or non-filed reports.
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The administrative fine search includes all cases dating back to 2000. You can search all administrative fine cases using keywords, case number and committee name. For additional search filters, you can still search administrative fines using our legacy FEC Enforcement Query System.
Enforcement statistics and process documents
Enforcement statistics track the number of FEC enforcement matters resolved and associated penalties.
Enforcement process documents: The Commission has released a number of documents relating to enforcement and compliance processes in an effort to increase transparency and make internal documents available to the public.