Projo Politics Blog

PROVIDENCE -- The public may not have access to state campaigns' final finance reports, known as "seven-day reports," until after Election Day.

Tomorrow is the deadline for all candidates, political action committees and parties that have given or taken money this general election cycle to file the seven-day reports, which give the public and the candidates' opponents a last look at the money race in the days before the Nov. 7 election.

The reports are supposed to include all expenditures and receipts between Oct. 10 and Oct. 30.

The state Board of Elections expects to receive more than 1,000 reports, including those regarding the contentious battles for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, mayoral races, and the casino ballot question.

"They’ll be scanned in over the next 10 days," said Richard E. Thornton, the Board of Elections' supervising accountant. "It’s a possibility [that they won’t be up before the election]. We’ve had to reallocate some of our resources to the elections side ... We have just two people scanning and uploading."

The reports will be available on the Board of Elections' Web site as soon as they're scanned, Thornton said, adding that he doesn't like to let the public see the filings before then.

"I don’t want people handling reports that we haven’t processed yet. I don’t want sheets to go missing," he said. "I think the seven-day reports are very critical. I'm just trying to find a way to get it done. There’s no magic potion for that yet – it’s very manual."

Thonton said he doesn't post the reports -- which can range from one to 20 pages -- in any particular order. They're scanned in as they're received, with no consideration to the significance of the election.

"Opponents are going to want to see the reports," he said. "We’ll accommodate them the best we can, but our mission is get the reports viewable to all, not just a select few."

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

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