ETH 6.03 Assistance by ethics commission staff. Pursuant to the authority and responsibility vested in the ethics commission by the statutes, specifically s. 19.46 (2), Stats., the staff of the board commission is authorized to provide advice to any interested person with respect to the proper application of title II ch. 11, subch. III of ch. 13, and subch. III of ch. 19, Stats. Such advice should not be construed as a formal opinion of the board commission under s. 19.46 (2) (c), Stats. SECTION 3. ETH 6.04 (1) (a) is renumbered ETH 6.04 (1) (ar).
SECTION 4. ETH 6.04 (1) (ag) is created to read:
ETH 6.04 (1) (ag) “Commission” means the ethics commission.
SECTION 5. ETH 6.04 (1) (d), (2), (3) (a) and (b), and (4) to (6) are amended to read:
(d) "Filing Local filing officer" means the ethics commission or any other an elections official, other than the commission, with whom elections or campaign finance documents are required to be filed by chs. 5 to 12 under ch. 11, Stats. (2) Nomination papers, recall petitions, and those campaign Campaign finance reports provided in ss. 11.0103, 11.0204, 11.0304, 11.0404, 11.0504, 11.0505, 11.0604, 11.0605, 11.0704, 11.0804, 11.0904, and 11.1001, Stats., may not be filed with the commission or a local filing officer by facsimile process. Nomination papers and recall petitions shall not be considered filed with the filing officer until the signed original of each nomination paper and recall petition is received in the offices of the filing officer. Campaign finance reports which are provided in ss. 11.0103, 11.0204, 11.0304, 11.0404, 11.0504, 11.0604, 11.0704, 11.0804, and 11.0904, and 11.1001, Stats., and which are delivered by the U.S. mails are considered filed with the local filing officer when the report is postmarked. Campaign finance reports which are provided in ss. 11.0103, 11.0204, 11.0304, 11.0404, 11.0504, 11.0604, 11.0704, 11.0804, and 11.0904, and 11.1001, Stats., and which are not delivered by the U.S. mails, are considered filed with the local filing officer when received in the local filing officer's offices. Campaign finance reports that are provided in ss. 11.0103, 11.0204, 11.0304, 11.0404, 11.0504, 11.0604, 11.0704, 11.0804, 11.0904, and 11.1001, Stats., are considered filed with the commission when received in the commission's offices. (3)
(a) A duplicate copy of the document is received by the commission or local filing officer, in its offices, by facsimile process, no later than the day and hour at which the document is required to be filed and
(b) The signed original of the document is received at the offices of the commission or local filing officer with a postmark not later than the filing deadline; or the signed original is delivered to the commission or local filing officer not later than the filing deadline.
(4) Any document which is filed by facsimile process under this rule shall be considered received at the time of transmission as recorded and entered by the receiving equipment by the commission or local filing officer's staff when the facsimile copy is delivered to the commission or local filing officer's offices.
(5) If, for any reason, transmission of a document is not received at the commission or local filing officer's offices, whether because of a failure in the receiving system of the commission or local filing officer or because of a failure in the transmitting system of the person attempting to file or for any other reason, a document shall not be considered received or filed until a facsimile copy is delivered to and received at the commission or local filing officer's offices and the signed original is received at the commission or local filing officer's offices with a postmark not later than the filing deadline.
(6) The burden of establishing that a document has been received by facsimile process at the offices of the commission or local filing officer shall be upon the person who, or the committee or group which, is required to file the document.
SECTION 4. ETH 6.05 (1) (a), (c), (f) and (2) are amended to read:
ETH 6.05 (1) (a) “Campaign period" for a candidate, personal campaign committee or support committee has the same meaning as provided in s. 11.1103, Stats., and for any other registrant begins on January 1 of an odd-numbered year and ends on December 31 of the following year. (c) “Electronic format" means computer diskette or a computer data file created using Access or Excel software or software that produces a delimited text file. the online system maintained by the commission for campaign finance registration and reporting.
(f) "Report" means any filing required by ss. 11.0103, 11.0204, 11.0304, 11.0404, 11.0501, 11.0502, 11.0503, 11.0504, 11.0505 (3), 11.0604, 11.0605 (3), 11.0704, 11.0804, 11.0904, and 11.1001, Stats. (2) Any registrant who files with the ethics commission and who accepts contributions or makes disbursements in a total amount or value of $20,000 or more than $1,000 during a campaign period shall file each campaign finance report that is required to be filed by ch. 11, Stats., in an electronic format. SECTION 5. ETH 6.05 (5) and (6) are repealed.
SECTION 6. EFFECTIVE DATE: This rule shall take effect on the first day of the first campaign finance reporting period following publication in the Wisconsin Administrative Register as provided in s. 227.22 (2) (intro.), Stats.
