Senate panel adopts amendments to expand disclosure, ban 'red boxing' and tightens online disclaimers

Senate File 19-96, introduced by Sen. Julie Marti, would make a series of changes to Minnesota's campaign finance laws to increase transparency and to tighten rules on coordination between candidates and outside spenders, the Senate Elections Committee heard March 11.

The bill would broaden the definition of independent expenditures to cover paid communications that "promote, attack, support, or oppose" a clearly identified candidate even if the communication stops short of express advocacy. It would also update coordination rules and explicitly prohibit "red boxing," a practice the bill's author described as publicly posting campaign polling or targeting guidance on a campaign website that gives independent groups explicit instructions about audiences or messages. "They actually often...put a red box around it," Sen. Julie Marti said in committee testimony as she described how campaigns can publicly post material that effectively directs outside spenders.

Other provisions would move the start date for the electioneering-reporting window to the opening of absentee voting in the primary and extend it through the general election, require clearer on-ad disclaimers for digital advertising unless it is technologically infeasible, and require certain disclosure and reporting changes for large self-funded campaigns. The bill also updates rules for disclaimers attached to outdoor advertising: the amendment adopted in committee would require disclaimers to meet a color-contrast legibility standard and specified a minimum relative font size (the committee later added a grandfathering line to apply the new size requirement only to signs printed on or after Jan. 1, 2026).

Witnesses supporting the measure included Mary Hartnett, executive director of Clean Elections Minnesota, and Elizabeth Schimick of the Campaign Legal Center, who urged expansion of reporting to capture so-called PASO (promote, attack, support, oppose) communications and stronger online disclaimers. "Paid communications that promote, attack, support, or oppose a candidate...should be treated as independent expenditures," Schimick said, arguing the change would make disclosure consistent with other states. Hartnett said the bill would "level the playing field" and provide voters with better information about who is trying to influence their votes.

Committee members asked technical questions about how the bill would be enforced and whether certain provisions could be too subjective. Sen. Jeff Sigurdsson of the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board told the committee the board had trouble enforcing the existing "prominently provided" standard for sign disclaimers because that phrase is not defined in statute. "It would be useful...to have something that's more concrete than 'prominently'," Sigurdsson said, supporting the bill's move to clearer, enforceable signage and legibility standards.

The committee adopted two author's amendments (A4 and A5) and an additional amendment to grandfather existing outdoor signs printed before Jan. 1, 2026. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill; no final enactment vote was taken in committee.