Campaign Finance Reports Due Today!

Today marked another milestone of the campaign. I filed my first camaign finance report. The totals went something exactly like this, Expenditures to date: $10.75 , Money in the Bank: $100. The expenditures were $10 for the packet of forms from the Board of Elections required to run for office, and 75¢ for photocopies of my petitions from the Richmond Registrar's Office. I plan to be my only campaign contributor. I am not soliciting nor accepting campaign donations. I am the Anti-money candidate.

I filed my reports by paper version. I can't use the software provided by the Board of Elections because I use a Mac and they only provide software for PCs. When one files by paper report, the candidate is required to file the original signed report with the Board of Elections (In Richmond, located at 200 N. 9th St. Suite 101 in Downtown Richmond) and a copy with the Local Registrar's Office which is the City of Richmond Registrar's Office located in Room 105 on the First Floor of City Hall at 900 E. Broad Street. We, candidates in Richmond, have it made when it comes to delivering paperwork -- only one block apart.

I completed my Campaign Finance Report last night before I went to sleep. I woke up at 7 am and updated my campaign website a little bit. I added five quotes from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, a Socialist news link, a link to NPR, and a link to a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Then I rode down to Kinko's Downtown and made two sets of copies, one for my records and one for the Richmond Registrar's Office.

I made it to the State Board of Elections Office shortly after 9:15 am. A young man there accepted my Campaign Finance Report and date stamped the pages. I asked him for a written receipt which I am accustomed to receiving whenever I drop off paperwork with the Board of Elections or the Registrar's Office. The young man replied, "We don't really do that, I can stamp your copy." I handed him my copies to date stamp and told him I had received written receipts before to which he responded, "I don't normally work here." Oh, that explains it.

Five minutes later at City Hall in the Registrar's Office, I had a good time telling the story to Ms. Wagoner about how I couldn't get a receipt from the Board of Elections. She was sure to give me a receipt for the copy of the Campaign Finance Report I submitted to her.