The California Democratic Party is providing you with digital files for canvassing walk cards and posters in support of Proposition 50. The Political Reform Act and FPPC Regulations require the majority payer of an advertisement to provide a disclaimer on any public communications in support of Prop 50. The files contain a space in which you can add your organization’s disclaimer. This memorandum provides a brief overview of the disclaimer rules. Please be advised that this is not being provided as legal advice; should you have any questions, we encourage you to confer with your counsel regarding your legal obligations.
DOWNLOAD MULTILINGUAL WALK PIECES HERE.
DOWNLOAD SPANISH & ENGLISH YARD SIGNS HERE.
Generally speaking, a political party committee, a candidate committee, or a committee that does not have any funders of $50,000 or more would include the following disclaimer on printed materials that it distributes:
| Ad paid for by [Committee name on 410] |
If the committee is not a candidate or political party committee, and has one or more contributors who have contributed $50,000 or more in the aggregate during the period beginning 12 months before the expenditure and ending 7 days before it is distributed, the disclaimer requires additional information. For the walk cards, the disclaimer will be as follows:
| Ad paid for by [Committee name on Form 410].Ad Committee’s Top Funders:[Top funder of $50k or more 1][Top funder of $50k or more 2][Top funder of $50k or more 3] |
For walk cards, the disclaimer must be in a printed or drawn box with a white background, at the bottom of the ad, and only needs to be included on one side of the ad or at the bottom of one page. It must be in at least 10-point Arial regular font in a color that contrasts with the white background. If Top Funders are required to be disclosed, all disclaimer language should be underlined, except for the top funders. Each top funder should be listed on a separate horizontal line.
For ads larger than those intended to be individually distributed, such as yard signs, the disclaimer will be as follows:
| Ad paid for by [Committee name on Form 410]. Ad Committee’s Top Funders: [Top funder of $50k or more 1],[Top funder of $50k or more 2], [Top funder of $50k or more 3] |
For these larger ads, the font size of the capital letters in the disclaimer must be at least 5 percent of the height of the advertisement. If Top Funders are required to be disclosed, they may be listed on the same line as the other disclosures and separated by commas.
Reporting
As a reminder, the payment to distribute one of these communications will be an in-kind to Prop 50 and should be reported directly to the Prop 50 committee (Yes on 50, The Election Rigging Response Act, Governor Newsom’s Ballot Measure Committee, FPPC ID 1380675) within 24 hours. Please report any in-kind contributions to Meghan Lyons ([email protected]) and Josh Myles ([email protected]) within the allotted time. A committee will need to report the in-kind contribution within 24-hours on Form 497 if the value of the in-kind contribution is $1,000 or more, and will also need to report it on its regular campaign reports. Again, we recommend that each committee confer with counsel regarding its reporting obligations.
