Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2972
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2972
- Campaign: means any organized or coordinated activity undertaken by two or more persons, any part of which is designed to influence the nomination, election, or defeat of any candidate or the passage, defeat, or modification of any public question. See
- Candidate: means an individual who has taken affirmative action to become a candidate for State, county, local, or legislative office in a primary, special, general, or local election. See
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Election: means the procedure whereby the voters of this State or any of its political subdivisions select a person to be a candidate for public office or to fill a public office or to act on public questions, including voting on constitutional amendments. See
- Electioneering communication: means any communication that refers to a clearly identified candidate for office and that promotes or supports a candidate for that office or attacks or opposes a candidate for that office, regardless of whether the communication expressly advocates a vote for or against a candidate, including communications published in any newspaper or periodical or broadcast on radio or television or over the Internet or any public address system; placed on any billboards, outdoor facilities, buttons, or printed material attached to motor vehicles, window displays, posters, cards, pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, or other circulars; or contained in any direct mailing, robotic phone calls, or mass electronic or digital communications. See
- Expenditure: means a payment, disbursement, distribution, advance, deposit, loan, or gift of money or anything of value, paid or promised to be paid, for the purpose of influencing an election, advocating a position on a public question, or supporting or opposing one or more candidates. See
- General election: means the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in even-numbered years. See
- Person: means any individual, business entity, labor organization, public interest group, or other organization, incorporated or unincorporated. See
- Political party: means a political party organized under chapter 45 of this title and any committee established, financed, maintained, or controlled by the party, including any subsidiary, branch, or local unit thereof, and shall be considered a single, unified political party. See
§ 2972. Identification in electioneering communications
(a) An electioneering communication shall contain the name and mailing address of the person, candidate, political committee, or political party that paid for the communication. The name and address shall appear prominently and in a manner such that a reasonable person would clearly understand by whom the expenditure has been made, except that:
(1) An audio electioneering communication paid for by a candidate does not need to contain the candidate’s address.
(2) An electioneering communication paid for by a person acting as an agent or consultant on behalf of another person, candidate, political committee, or political party shall clearly designate the name and mailing address of the person, candidate, political committee, or political party on whose behalf the communication is published or broadcast.
(b) If an electioneering communication is a related campaign expenditure made on a candidate’s behalf as provided in section 2944 of this chapter, then in addition to other requirements of this section, the communication shall also clearly designate the candidate on whose behalf it was made by including language such as “on behalf of” such candidate.
(c)(1) In addition to the identification requirements in subsections (a) and (b) of this section, an electioneering communication paid for by or on behalf of a political committee or political party shall contain the name of any contributor who contributed more than 25 percent of all contributions and more than $2,000.00 to that committee or party since the beginning of the two-year general election cycle in which the electioneering communication was made to the date on which the expenditure for the electioneering communication was made.
(2) For the purposes of this subsection, a political committee or political party shall be treated as having made an expenditure if the committee or party or person acting on behalf of the committee or party has executed a contract to make the expenditure.
(d) If it is not practicable to meet the identification requirements of this section within an electioneering communication that is broadcast over the Internet, such an electioneering communication shall contain a link that shall be clear and conspicuous and that, if clicked, takes the reader to a web page or social media page that provides all of the identification information as required by this section.
(e) The identification requirements of this section shall not apply to lapel stickers or buttons, nor shall they apply to electioneering communications made by a single individual acting alone who spends, in a single two-year general election cycle, a cumulative amount of not more than $150.00 on those electioneering communications, adjusted for inflation pursuant to the Consumer Price Index as provided in section 2905 of this chapter. (Added 2013, No. 90 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Jan. 23, 2014; amended 2017, No. 129 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. May 16, 2018.)