Primary donations missing from FEC lookup

October 26, 2016 5:56 AM

In January of this year, I made a small donation to a candidate in the presidential primary, through the candidate's website, and received an email confirmation via ActBlue. This page from the FEC leads me to believe that presidential campaigns must report either monthly or quarterly. The FEC individual transaction search page says that it may take an additional 30 days after the end of the reporting period for data entry to be performed. Nonetheless, it's now been more than 10 full months since my donation. Why doesn't it show up in the FEC's search?
posted by enn to Law & Government (2 answers total)

Best answer: If it was small enough (I want to say $50), they don't have to report it, and a lot of campaigns won't bother. ActBlue generally does roll those up automatically, though. Are you sure the money was taken out of your account or charged to your credit card or whatever?
posted by Etrigan at 6:13 AM on October 26, 2016

Response by poster: It looks like the amount might be $200, and my donation was below that limit, so that would explain it. I was confused since other donations to the same candidate for similar amounts were reported, but perhaps it depends on who is doing the reporting.
posted by enn at 6:18 AM on October 26, 2016