Campaign Finance

All candidates are required to submit three (3) expense reports during the campaign period as outlined by the Board of Elections each semester. The dates of required expense reports shall be posted on the Board of Elections website no later than the All Candidates Meeting.


What is an expense report?

An expense report details a candidate’s spending for their race from the time of formation of their campaign up to 5:00 PM the Friday before the expense report is due. The final expense report shall be due 15 minutes after polls close and shall be comprehensive of all spending for a campaign from the time of formation.

In the event that the leading candidate in a race does not submit their final expense report by the required time, they have from the time of notification (via email) until the beginning of the next Senate meeting to submit a final expense report. If they do not adhere to this requirement, their seat will be forfeited and awarded to the runner-up of their race.

Please note that any time or service(s) donated by someone who normally charges for their time or services should be counted as a donation. Additionally, all material donations should be considered as donations. The amount of donations counts towards a candidate’s spending limit.

Receipts for purchased materials should be submitted with expense reports, at the bottom of the report as shown in the image above. Expense reports without receipts will be considered incomplete and the candidate for whom they were submitted shall be issued an automatic warning.

All candidates are REQUIRED to submit an expense report REGARDLESS of whether any money was spent on their campaign.


How to submit an expense report

Expense reports should be submitted as a PDF by email to sgelections@ncsu.edu.


Spending limits

  • Student Body President and Vice President (joint ticket): $400
  • Student Senate President: $260
  • Student Body Treasurer: $260
  • Senator: $50
  • Other elective offices: $210
  • Department-level elective offices: $70

If a candidate exceeds the spending limit for their race, they shall be subject to a direct disqualification hearing.

In the event of a runoff election, candidates will have a new spending limit of up to 25% of the limit for their general election race.


Expense report disclosure

All submitted expense reports are considered public records and are available upon request. A candidate shall be notified if their expense report has been requested, but the name of the requester will remain private. Running totals of campaign expenses shall be made public. (Totals for the Spring 2019 election can be found here.)