State Board of Elections Approves New Digital Disclosure Rules

At its meeting last week, the state Board of Elections approved emergency regulations dealing with online political advertisements published by independent expenditure groups. The regulations carry out the provisions of the Democracy Protection Act, which was in response to Russian meddling in American elections. The language was enacted as part of this year’s state budget (Chapter 59, Part JJJ). The new regulations will be in place for this year’s elections.

The new regulations require independent expenditure groups (commonly called Super PACs) that publish digital ads to file a copy of the ad with the State Board of Elections within 24 hours in the month before an election, or else on a weekly basis. The board post them on its website so that the public can track who is spending on elections.

It also requires I.E. committees to file their state Board of Education with the tv, radio, cable and satellite providers, and online platforms that they advertise with. And all ads must also include a “paid for by” attribution.

The regulations apply to web sites and apps that directly sell ad space if they have at least 70 million monthly unique visitors from the United State, and to third-party ad vendors that have at least 30 million monthly unique monthly U.S. visitors.