ActBlue, a major fundraising conduit for Democrats, has been hit with a $100,000 fine by Maine's campaign finance regulator for filing a report two weeks late.
The fine by the Maine Ethics Commission is among the largest its ever assessed, although it could have been significantly larger. Ethics staff initially recommended a penalty of more than $680,000, but that was reduced because ActBlue had made a good faith effort to file its quarterly report that was due June 30.
Officials for ActBlue asked for a reduced penalty, arguing that the late report came during upheaval and staffing shortages at an organization that claims it has raised more than $16 billion for Democratic candidates since it was created in 2004.
They told regulators that it had difficulty uploading more than 13,000 transactions on the state's filing system. Ethics staff agreed that such a volume of transactions can take time, but also that ActBlue waited too long to begin the process.
