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Commission executive director previews 2025 legislation: quarterly filings, address redaction, AI and foreign‑fund restrictions
Summary
The commission's executive director outlined legislative priorities for 2025: move campaign and disclosure filings to consistent quarterly schedules, redact personal home addresses from publicly posted filings, return local filings to state administration, and pursue bills on generative AI in campaign content and foreign funding enforcement.
At the Dec. 13 meeting the commission’s executive director outlined several legislative priorities staff plans to pursue during the 2025 session, including changes to filing schedules, privacy protections for candidates’ home addresses, a proposal to return local filing responsibilities to the state, and bills addressing generative artificial intelligence in campaign materials.
Filing-schedule modernization: The director said staff will propose a move to a uniform quarterly filing schedule across election and non‑election years, modeled in part after the federal quarterly approach. The goal, staff said, is to simplify reporting dates for candidates and treasurers so reporting is consistent "no matter what you're running for."
PFDS timing and address redaction: Staff proposed moving the annual personal financial disclosure filing deadline to April 1 each year (the director said that date would still allow filings to be available before primaries in election years). The director also said the commission will propose redacting personal home addresses from the publicly posted disclosures to reduce doxing and safety risks; the commission would continue to collect addresses for enforcement but not display them publicly.
Return of local filings: The director said a legislative proposal will seek to move local filings (city and county) back to the state commission’s administration, noting support from county and municipal associations. Staff said several jurisdictions currently retain local filing custody, which the director characterized as an experiment that other stakeholders now support reverting.
Other priorities: Staff said it expects to propose a bill to require registration by agents of foreign nationals and to add explicit state-level prohibitions on foreign money in Georgia elections, and to work with legislative leaders on a measure addressing deceptive use of generative AI in campaign content.
Why this matters: The proposed changes would alter when and how candidates and public officials file disclosures and campaign reports and would affect public access to home‑address data for officeholders and candidates. Generative‑AI and foreign‑fund provisions could create new compliance obligations for campaigns and outside groups.
Next steps: Staff said it will coordinate with legislative partners and stakeholder groups and bring draft language forward once sponsors are identified.
