The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)
The Secretary of State’s Office is allowing some wiggle room for candidates to file required finance reports past today’s 5 p.m. deadline but says they must still be filed before the end of the day.
That’s to help candidates who may be having difficulties with the new campaign reporting information system the office unveiled today.
Hardship extensions won’t be granted past today unless there’s a serious excuse, such as a death in the family, Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II said. In the past, the secretary of state has been lenient on the deadline because “the system was so terrible,” Trujillo said, but not knowing how to use a computer or other excuses that have been accepted in the past will no longer be accepted, he said.
Not all reports will appear online today even if they’re filed, Trujillo said. The office is still accepting – and receiving some – in an Excel spreadsheet format that doesn’t automatically convert in the new system and must be entered into the system manually, he said. Those will be in the system by the end of the week.
By the next reporting deadline on May 10 the office won’t accept reports submitted in old formats that aren’t compatible with the new system.