Occasionally, a candidate will register a campaign with the PDC, accept contributions, and decide to end the campaign before the election is held. Follow these steps to dispose of remaining campaign funds when the campaign ends prematurely:

  • Determine what contributions remain in the campaign account using the "first in, first out" method (i.e., starting with the most recent contributions received, determine which contributions remain unspent in the campaign account).
  • Immediately return any unspent general election contributions if the campaign ends before the primary election date.
  • Primary election contributions can be
    • returned to the contributor before the primary election date or
    • held in the campaign account until after the primary is held at which time they become surplus funds. Authorized uses of surplus funds can be found in the previous section.

A candidate who ends a campaign in order to start a campaign for a different office may not automatically transfer remaining campaign funds to the new campaign.