001Okay, it is the noon hour. Um, welcome to the legal and ethical campaigns for school board members. Today is Wednesday, September 3rd of 2025. My name is uh Anna Harmon. I am the policy and legal services director here at IASB and will be uh facilitating the uh webinar today. Marty, would you like to introduce yourself? >> You bet. I'm Marty Brightitman, a legal services specialist with IASB and I will be monitoring the chat and um reading those questions aloud for our presenters. >> Yeah. So, um thank you all for attending and for your interest in running for school board um serving as a school board member. Today, our plan is to inform you on campaign laws, conflict of interest laws, gift laws, etc. uh and then kind of help you understand how to run legal
002and ethical campaigns. So for those of you joining us live as this will be a recording and accessible on our website, the ISV website. Um please maximize this opportunity to learn by sharing your questions as Marty said uh with us through that chat application. And it looks like we've had a few people test that already. So glad to see that's working. um we'll monitor those questions and um try to come uh to those uh or get to those as they come in if if they're relevant to the topic. Otherwise, we will have time at the end of the web webinar um uh to answer those questions. Otherwise, um ISB's communications team is the primary contact for community members that are interested in board service. So, um yeah. Um, I would like to now uh offer
003a warm welcome and thank you to our experts in the room. We'll be presenting today. Um, Erica, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself, then we'll pass that on to Bailey. >> Hi, good afternoon. I'm Erica Eckley. I'm the executive director and legal counsel for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Um, and I think I'm tossing it over to Bailey for her to introduce herself. Hi everyone. I am Bailey Kelly. I am a director of elections for the Iowa Secretary of State's office. Um so I think maybe to preface all of this conversation, um I handle election administration, which is done by the county auditors. Um and Erica is going to be the expert on the campaign rules. Um but I'm here to provide guidance about how to be a candidate and navigate that. But
004um we kind of in Iowa we have a situation where it's it's two different um offices that handle handle this. >> Yes. Thank you. Um so we'll we'll go ahead and get started. Um review some of the goals for today. So review key dates. Um we're going to master the basics of filing. Learn about conflict of interest. Um discover three must know campaign finance laws. um explore an ethical scenario um and in this case we'll ask the audience to do some thinking on their own um and then hear some cautionary tales from both Erica and Bailey and that'll be that practical application of everything we um learned today. So before we really dig into that, we'd like to get to know our audience a little bit better. Um so we'll be launching a poll. You
005have six options here of um where you are either in the campaign or who where where you are thinking about whether or not you're going to start campaigning um or if you're a board member, superintendent, SBO, or otherwise. So, Marty, if you would launch that poll, please. We'll give you a few moments to read the options. Okay, it looks like we have 87% participation. A lot of I've decided to run for the school board. Congratulations. Um current school board members, uh this is always a good time to review. Um actually we have a pretty decent mix. So everybody welcome and uh thank you for attending. Okay, moving on. Um so now we'll pass the webinar off to the experts in the room by speaking about key dates. All right, so the uh filing window is
006open for schoolboard candidates. um you will be filing with the school board secretary. Um I know that for city school elections um it can be a little bit confusing because for most elections you always file with the county auditor. Um for city elections sometimes they designate the city clerk to be that filing officer, sometimes they don't. But it's very clear in Iowa code that for school elections the school board secretary is the filing officer. She'll be filing with them. It is 5:00 p.m. on September 18th. Um, and if something changes in your life and you decide that you don't want to uh be on the ballot anymore, then the withdrawal deadline in writing um is 5:00 p.m. on the 23rd. Um, this is something that happens. I on a on a much larger scale, I
007had many conversations with the um uh the Robert F. Kennedy uh Jr. campaign last year because they did not want to appear on our ballot and they did not notify us by the withdrawal deadline. So he was there on the ballot if if anybody voted last November. Um so that withdrawal deadline is important. Um election day this year is November 4th. Um and then canvasing the votes. Uh that is the process where the board of board of supervisors for each county that's involved um will review the results and certify them. Um so tier one means your board is looking at all of the uh precincts within your your county and that jurisdiction. Um but if you are in a school district that crosses counties then you have your first year canvas where they certify those
008votes um on November 12th and then they notify uh what we call the control county. So, um, right, the the county that has the most, um, taxable base, uh, for your school district, um, then those other counties that kind of trickle in, they will report back to the control county and, um, and let them know what their results are and then they perform a second tier canvas, which is the final decision in who is the winner of that election. and they produce um documents and they will contact the winners of those um those elections and uh and then they will get them sworn in. All right. So now that we have kind of a baseline of key dates and deadlines, um the very first steps for a candidate is to learn about filing and um
009to understand about those or to learn about those potential conflicts of interest that may prevent them from um running for school board in the first place. So once again, I will turn it to our experts and let them dig in. So, um the very last bullet point here is a link to our website which will have uh a very very helpful candidates guide. Um and that will include all of the information that I'm about to spew out to you. Um it will have links to the affidavit paperwork, the nomination petition paperwork. Um it'll have the dates and deadlines that we just went over. Um, so make sure that you are going to this website and getting that information um from from our office because uh it's going to be the most accurate, the most up-to-date.
010Um, and you just read through it. It's it's about 20 pages, I want to say, maybe less. Um, so it's not a daunting uh document by any stretch. Um, so you have that available to you. But the important things to remember is when you go to file with the schoolboard secretary, um you need to make sure that you have your affidavit of candidacy and your nomination petitions together. Um you can't turn in your affidavit and then say, "Oh, I'll bring in the signatures when I get them." Um they have to be together. Um make sure that your affidavit is notorized. Um your county auditor's office will have three uh notary publics. Um, and uh, sometimes the the school board secretary may be able they may potentially be a a public notary and so they could
011do that for you, but it's just a good idea to have that done um, in advance. Um, if you are in a situation, this typically doesn't happen with school boards, but um, if you're going to have somebody drop off your paperwork, you need to absolutely make sure that it's notorized beforehand because um, you can't just sign something and then then have somebody notoriize it. The entire point of a notoriization is I witnessed this person with their ID sign the document in front of me. So, the notoriization part is important, but it should be easy to do. Um, like I said, all of your county auditors are notaries. Um, they can help you with that. Um, and a lot of your schoolboard secretaries will be as well. Again, filing deadline is 5:00 p.m. on the 18th.
012Um, signature requirements. I did see something in a chat. Um, does a sign does a signature count on the petition if they abbreviate the town name? And the answer to that is mostly um uh if you have right so I'm in PK County um when the PK county auditor receives petitions and they say WDM or DSM um they know what that means that's plain and simple um so of course yeah those those would be acceptable the tricky part is if you are in a jurisdiction where you have um two jur two places that could potentially have the same abbreviation. So, right, you have a pleasant hill and a prairie height, right? They put down PH and you can't figure out based on the address which one they're talking about and one of them is in
013your school district and the other is not. That becomes a problem. But just simply using WDM for West De Mo, that's perfectly reasonable. Um, and again, in that candidates guide on our website, it has the signature requirements. So, for uh school board candidates, um uh you would you will probably have to reach out to the uh county auditor to get um the numbers that you're going to need because it's based on turnout at previous elections um and things like that. So, uh you will have to have to do some uh discernment of how many signatures you need. Um, but we always recommend that you go above and beyond. Get more than you need. You never want to be the person who um has, you know, 101 and then two get crossed off the list. So,
014I think I think I'm good here. >> All right. Thank you for that. And I will second that uh that campaign guide. It is fantastic and I myself has referenced it several times. So, highly recommend looking at that. Um, Marty, we have another poll for the audience. Um, so given all the information we have just processed, where are you at in the filing process? So, we have three options here. Already turned in the paperwork, collecting signatures now. Haven't quite decided yet if I'm running or other a few moments. All right. Um, kind of looks like everybody's evenly all over the place. So, already turned in paperwork, collecting signatures, and quite a few others there. So, um, yeah, thank you for sharing that information. Okay. So, conflict of interest laws. We're going to go ahead and
015pass this back to the experts again. >> So, I can um cover this. I the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Uh we focus on chapter 68A and 68B. So, I'm going to focus on those areas, but I want you to to make sure that you are cognizant of the additional conflict of interest laws in other parts of the code as outlined here, such as the prohibition on receiving more than $20,000 in compensation, uh, appointing a relative within a third degree of uh, relationship uh, to a paying position without approval by the board. The the key areas of 68B highlighted here are you have to ensure that you're not taking official action or performing an official duty um with outside employment or activity. Specifically, the code prohibits an individual from having multiple jobs um getting
016uh that would conflict with each other. So, if you have a state or local government job, uh you can't receive payment from outside sources to perform that job. Your payment would come from that local or state government official. Um you also cannot utilize your government time or efforts uh your government resources to perform that outside employment. So, you need to keep that in mind uh as you're considering running and what that might mean with with a position that you might be elected to. The other thing that you need to in remember is that um you can't have a position that would would have uh would conflict with something that you're you might have authority over. For instance, with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, we have authority over other state agencies. We have authority
017over uh candidates for government office. So, I would be prohibited um from being on a board of a different uh state agency that I would have authority to to to to um uh review. uh I am would be unable to participate as a candidate um because uh of my government position having authority over those. So that would create a conflict um where I I wouldn't know where my loyalties lie uh and it it would create some issues. So that's why the the law prohibits that. I will say that um on the local level uh these ethical issues are enforced by the local authorities. So the county attorney or others would have authority over those. We do help provide some guidance and some review on that to assist with that. But any actual enforcement of that
018would come from the local level. The other area that um can really cause some issues is is the gift law. Iowa has a very strict gift law to prohibit any of these conflict. Uh the whole point of of having the gift law is to ensure that the decisions that are made as an elected official or as a a government uh employee is that they're being made uh on behalf of the government on behalf of the people and they're not being unduly influenced by individuals um who might be trying to uh provide additional uh gifts or favors to individuals who are making those decisions. So for instance, if you are on a school board, you cannot take gifts over two $3 from anyone who would be a prohibited donor. This would include uh somebody who might
019be looking to have a contract with that state or with that school board. Um they might there might be uh they might be looking to um help provide some construction. uh there might be uh individuals who it impacts their employment. So individuals who would benefit from decisions made by that school board uh should not be providing gifts uh to individuals. There are of course some exceptions to things um where there is little concern with that. Uh these primarily include, you know, if you're participating in something that the general public would be at, uh where they would would have the same rights to receive or participate in in the event. Uh if there's uh you know, if you have a a family member or or something like that that uh is related to you. Uh so
020very limited situations there. But the whole point of that is that uh it helps the public uh understand and have uh ensure that they are uh the decisions are being made for the benefit of of that government body rather than because somebody is going to be benefiting uh personally from from that decision. So keep that in mind and be very cognizant of that. um I if there is a concern, you're always welcome to reach out to us and talk with with us about about anything before there becomes a problem. But but just keep in mind um even if there's something that maybe is on the line, just the appearance uh of impropriy there can sometimes cause some issues for people. So keep that in mind. >> The other Yeah, I'm sorry. >> Excuse me. We
021do have a question from our audience. Would be taken out to dinner from a construction company be considered a gift? >> Uh, I would consider that a gift. You are receiving something of value. The cost of that dinner um that construction company I, you know, with the school boards, you know, my local school has been um my local school district has been um doing a lot of construction with and updates with their schools. Um, so go t being taken out to dinner from those construction companies uh could create that that conflict um of you know they're taking you out to dinner, they're trying to create that relationship. Um so that would be something that would not be appropriate to do. Um again um I I think I saw that it said a college could a
022college provide uh a gift to them. Uh again that one probably is is uh it depends on you know what that college was doing. Are you encouraging people to go to that college? Are you doing some additional things? So you know keep in mind the you know why is that college providing you those gifts? So think about that. Um you know are they sending it to everyone in your district? Um why are they sending it to the school board? um um you know just uh without knowing exactly how much that was. If it's a $3 item or less um you're probably all right, but if it's it's something a little bit more, you know, why are they sending it to the school board? Are they looking for you to to be making some decisions to
023assist them? Are they looking are you offering college credits? Um you know, think about the decisions you're making and and what relationship there is with that college. um you know just looking at that without more information I would really flag that as possibly uh something of concern uh because there's you know I don't know if that school district is sending students to to college uh courses um with some of their funding. I don't know if they're uh helping provide scholarships if they're they're doing something to benefit that college. So, just kind of uh consider that. Uh oh. Um I wasn't quite sure. I didn't quite catch it. If that was just an addendum, if it's the the college's own board, they're providing gifts to them. Um that would be, you know, if that would be
024like your employer giving you you something. So, so just keep in mind it's the the gifts from the prohibited donors, people who stand to benefit from the decisions that you make or the investigations that are done or those types of things. So, keep in mind, is this gift coming from that prohibited donor or is it is it coming from uh somebody completely unrelated uh to the decisions that will impact the others? Okay, great questions. Oh, go ahead, Erica. >> And then, um, expending or permitting the expenditure of public monies to expressly advocate in favor for, uh, or against a candidate or a ballot issue. We get a lot of questions on this and we're more than happy to help. Um, so there is a prohibition um, the 68A uh,505 in the code that prohibits using
025resources. This would include not just money, not just a a budget item, but also your time, uh your phone, uh your your copies, and any kind of resources. If you're doing something at at the job, uh your state or local job, that would be considered your uh expending public resources. And when we talk about this, um there needs to be that express advocacy. And so this would include um uh for instance uh we're seeing quite a few um ballot issues for local option sales tax or bond issues for school districts to to improve some of their buildings or other things like that. uh the the thing that we that makes it an express advocacy is if you're taking a specific position on that issue and you're asking people to to vote in favor of it.
026So for instance, just providing some general information, there's going to be a bond issue on the ballot on September 9th. um this would not raise your taxes but would bring in um a million dollars to to the school district for this. Um that does not specifically advocate for or against it. So that would not be uh prohibited. Uh the issue comes in where you say um we support this ballot issue. We encourage you to vote in favor of it. Um, so we're looking for magic language of support, vote for, um, cast your ballot um, in this way and things that are directing people in how you want them to to act rather than just providing information. We've had several school districts reach out to us um with some information that they wanted to provide uh
027about dates of of ballot issues. Um dates that they would be on the ballot uh specific information about what uh how much it would be uh what it how it would impact. but it didn't include any of that specific please support this or vote in favor of this or we ask you to vote yes on um on November 4th for for this issue. Uh so so long as you are not expressly advocating not asking them to vote a certain way uh you can provide information but if you are saying we support these candidates we support this issue those are things that you cannot in any way use government resources you can't use your phone um you can't do it during your time and you certainly can't send out mailings um from those public funds. So,
028those are things to keep in mind. >> I just want to sorry, jump in and underscore what Erica just said about um the express advocacy. Um it's also a very slippery slope when even you're just putting information out there. If you start throwing graphics into a document or highlighting specific things, I mean, um that can all be interpreted as an maybe even an unintentional advocacy for something. Um so really if you're if your school is going to do any kind of public education about a ballot measure um or a schoolboard race um just really stick to the facts. Um it gets very tricky. You know all communication has a message. So, if you're going to put out any kind of information to the public, um, my recommendation would probably be to leave it to the
029county auditor's office who's going to be running the election and administering it and putting it out in the newspaper and everything like that. But um yeah, you certainly can notify the public, but um as soon as you start throwing an exclamation point here or um you know telling people about you know stick to what your public measure actually says. This is what it's going to be used for as opposed to wouldn't we all like to see a new gymnasium? this one is terri like that's where you kind of start getting down that path of maybe unintentionally um advocating for something. >> Okay, >> Erica, >> I I did see a question come through but I didn't catch it. Uh the question is, would this include a current board member putting a sign in their yard
030for someone running for school board? >> Um so the uh current school board member is um putting this in their own public private or their own private uh property, right? Their home. They're not putting it anywhere in the school. Um, I mean, you don't as you're still allowed to participate and have your First Amendment rights. Um, the issue is making sure that you're doing it um you're not using government resources. So, if you're advocating for another candidate, you're doing it on your own time. You're not doing it at the school district. You're not doing it during a meeting. you're if you have a sign, it's in your private yard, uh your home, um and you're utilizing if you're utilizing any resources, time or things. It's your own uh time, your own personal resources. You're not
031um you know, just because you're you're that schoolboard member doesn't mean that you can no longer participate in in the political process. you just can't utilize your public resources that you have as a as a benefit of being that uh schoolboard member from doing any of that. So, you would need to make sure that you're using your own personal phone line um and and you're not utilizing school district letter head, those kind of things. um not putting anything up in the school, not doing anything during the time you're supposed to be working on school issues. >> Okay, great questions. Thank you everybody for submitting those. Um we're going to move on to considerations for candidates. Um because candidates will want to consider the e uh legal, ethical, and financial aspects of their campaigns. Um uh
032the school board candidates You must comp as schoolboard candidates, you must comply with the Iowa ethics and campaign finance disclosure laws and those are uh located in chapter 68A and 68b. So um there are many many provisions of this law but um for sake of time uh and um um respect of your time as well u we're just going to hit on those or highlight the heavy hitters. Um, so I'll pass that off to Erica and Bailey. >> Um, so candidate committees. Um, so we, um, at the Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, we have what we call the WRS, which is the web reporting system. And with that, you can file any of the reports that are necessary as a candidate. So, any individual or pack um committee or candidate that um has met the
033require the $1,000 level uh is required to file uh a a report with us, a DR1 report with us. It needs to be done within within, I believe, 10 days of meeting that $1,000 threshold. So, even if you are completely self-funding your own campaign, if you spend $1,000 on yard signs, on on brochures, those things, you are required to to file that candidate committee. Um, so keep in mind with that, um, that $1,000 level is kind of where you are required to file. you can file before that um without any problem, but you do need to make sure that you you do file up once you reach that $1,000 level. The attribution statements um these need to be included on anything that advocates for um a ballot issue that advocates for a a candidate for
034or against a candidate. I will say since um I started in this role in the in this summer and I have received a lot of calls about attribution statements, people forgetting to put those attribution statements on um campaign flyers that they are handing out. Uh so this is something to really think about. Um, you do have to put an attribution statement on anything that expressly advocates for uh an issue or a a candidate. Um, the only thing you don't have to put that on is is yard signs, uh, clothing or very very small things like pencils. Um, but anything else needs to have that attribution statement. If you have not filed a DR1 creating a specific uh committee, then you would need to include uh the name and address of the person who paid for
035that um that specific document or ad on Facebook. There's uh a guidance on our website about how to address um you know a lot of campaigns use Facebook advertising now. They have Facebook pages. They have web pages. So, there's a lot of information about where to put those attribution statements um for a website that's paid for by the campaign for Facebook um pages that are that are put together by the candidate or their um volunteers. So, you need to make sure that those attribution statements are included. Uh again, we're seeing we're getting a lot of um people will send us pictures. I just received this in the mail. It doesn't say who paid for it. So, people are watching. Uh, and that is something that we will require you to go in and and fix.
036So, keep that in mind. Uh, the reporting requirements when you hit that $1,000 threshold and then at certain times after the election, uh, depending on on the race that you're in, uh, the attribution statements for anything that you are printing or paying for aside from those campaign signs. And then Bailey, I don't know if you wanted to chat a little bit about campaign signs, if you want me to take it, how you want to do that one. >> Yeah, I'm happy to talk about that. Um, our office gets a lot of phone calls about where can this sign be? Does this need to be taken down? Um, we um proactively train law enforcement and the county auditors um about what what electioneering means. So electioneering um is defined in chapter 39A of election misconduct um
037and specifically campaign signs that's in 68A.406. Um so that will lay out how um where campaign signs can can be posted. So, the big ones um are there's a difference between a private yard and the public right of way. So, the space between the sidewalk and the road, that's a public space. That's not your private property. Um so, if you're going to have a yard sign, it needs to be on the other side of the sidewalk. um on your house side of the sidewalk because between the curb and the sidewalk is a public space. Um so in that same vein, you can't put any campaign signs in any public place, government property, um a public park. It has to be on on private property. Um that being said, um you can always have like a
038bumper sticker on your car. Um, so basically the I can't I don't have it pulled up right in front of me to tell you exactly what the measurements are, but basically like you can't have anything larger than an 8 and 1 half by 11 like a regular letter size piece of paper. Um, once it gets beyond that, then it becomes more than just a bumper sticker. Um, and uh, you cannot have anything within 300 ft of the entrance of a polling place. um again unless it's on private property. So all of our counties have received through um the department of administrative services here at the state, they have provided um GIS maps for all of their polling places and they have 300 foot maps and they know exactly what that 300 ft looks like. Um
039and the the pole workers are trained on it. Um, again, the law enforcement, the county sheriffs and deputies are trained on this. Um, but this is one of our more common questions that we get from the public about um about campaigning. Um, we have a question is when do they have to take the signs down by and unless there's a city ordinance, they can stay up forever. It's it's their private property. Um, so yeah, I we get a lot of concerns about signs. Um, and again, those two uh uh parts of statute that I just said to you, 68A.406 um and then 39A.4. Um, we'll cover all of it, but you know, just keep them in the yard, keep them close to the house um and, uh, make sure that you're extra careful around election
040day. But other than that, you should be good to go. >> Um, I'm just going to jump on that. The other thing, um, make sure, and this this seems, um, common sense, but make sure that you have permission, um, to place that on the on a person's private property. And then you need to make sure, um, as Bailey said, it needs to be a private property. It can't go on a prohibited con uh, contributor's property. Um so corporations, banks, insurance companies. Um so it needs to be in that private property. Um we also get a lot of concerns about uh campaign signs. So we do have a form that we fill out or that would that people can fill out on our website uh providing specific information about a campaign sign if there is a
041concern. And that link is right there on that web page um or on that PowerPoint slide there. Uh so people can fill those out and if we have the information we can call and try to address the concern with with the campaign signs. We do have another question related to um signage. Uh what businesses can we put a sign on if we have the permission? Um, so, uh, specific limited liability companies that are not owned by corporations and family farm corporations. Uh, I would say, um, you know, if it's a limited liability company, um, Secretary of State would have, um, you guys have a great database. uh if there's concern uh with that. >> Yeah, you can always reach out to us um and figure out what a business is incorporated as. Um but I'm
042just perusing the code and um prohibited uh contributors is 68A503. So, a limited liability company, um, LLC's, it used to be, uh, pretty small, uh, families. Um, right now, uh, you know, even Google, I believe, is an LLC now, but that would be incorporated. So, an LLC um and I the Secretary of State's office would be able to to talk about different types of uh business entities, but typically it's um small familyrun uh type LLC's that are not incorporated. Um >> I wish I could give you more help on this, but I live in the election side of the office, not the business services side. So, um, but yeah, I mean, if it's, um, if somebody is has incorporated, um, it kind of depends on if they're registered with the state. Um, or if they're,
043um, typically if they're registered with the state, they're either an LLC or they're incorporated. Um, again, that's a very broad, very general statement. So another um guest has a just another clarifying question. Uh restaurant boutique shop. Uh >> again it depends on how if they have chosen to to be incorporated as a corporation if they are um just a a and again I'm not a a a business uh attorney. Um, I would say if there's concern um about a company, I I would check the database um the secretary of state's database to see if they are incorporated. Um if they're a sole proprietor where they have not filed anything, it's just the individual uh operating as a business. Um that is not included. But if they are if they have filed those those papers to
044to incorporate with IRS uh insurance companies um then they would if they're sole proprietors and they have not uh LLC's are not have not been included in the code. Um so that's why um some of them are allowed. If you have any concerns, feel free to reach out to either Erica or myself, either of our offices, and we can get to the bottom of it and figure it out. Um, we just want to make sure that you have that heads up to to know. >> Yeah. >> Don't don't get yourself in hot water if you don't need to. >> Yeah. The best thing to do is to, you know, if an individual is going to support you, have them support you uh in their on their private property. Great questions guys. All right, so moving
045on to why is it important to comply uh penalties. So we are this is the portion where we're going to ask the audience to think a little bit. Uh we're going to explore through some kind of interactive uh scenarios and cautionary tales. Um so here's our first scenario. I will read it out loud and then kind of let the audience think about this for a while and uh at the end we will have answer options. Um and we'll have Erica come in and kind of uh give her thoughts on the two options that are available. So scenario, a citizen in your district is also running for an open seat on the same board. They ask you to run as a block or a group to share brochures and signs and to campaign together at events.
046So, sort of sit there, think about this scenario for for a while. Um, our options here are what would you do? And there are two. So, yes, I'll run as a candidate block. This seems easier than running on my own. Um, no, thank you. I'd prefer to run my own separate campaign. So, sort of think about those options and I'll invite give you maybe a couple minutes and then invite Erica to uh speak to this. Maybe just 30 seconds. Erica, would you like to talk? >> The somebody is asking to go back to the last slide so they can see it again. >> Yes, of course. So, here's the answers. I'll let you everybody kind of look at this first and then maybe we'll go back to the next the last slide so we can
047look at the scenario when Erica talks. Um so this is um legally uh you should not do this. Um that's that's a very short answer. Um the Iowa code pro each campaign is a candidate is prohibited from providing funding to another candidate. So, if you're running as a block, you would likely be in violation of this uh because each candidate needs to pay for their own um brochures, your own signs. Um and so if you're running as a block, um you would not be a specific candidate. Um you would be paying for another candidate, which is prohibited under the law. You are allowed to um have joint um campaign events. However, each candidate needs to pay their own portion um for the costs of that. Um so we exist for the transparency in who is
048um what is spent on elections, who is providing the the funding for that. Um, so any of the candidate um funds that they're getting from fundraising or they're funding their own um campaign, all of those are are part of the reports. And so um you would have to include all of the money that you have brought in to help finance your campaign. Um each individual over $25 needs to include that needs to be included in the reports. If you're running as a block, um, then you are helping support another candidate. One candidate is supporting another candidate. Like I said, that would be, uh, inappropriate under law and would not be allowed under the law and our auditors would be flagging that and contacting you. Um, the joint campaign, you know, you need to have make
049sure that um, each each person is paying for their specific things. you need to have whoever's assisting with that, whatever the cost of it, maybe send bills to each of the different candidates so they can pay individually. Um, so in order to have that transparency of what each candidate is doing to prevent um the candidate funding another candidate, uh this would not be something that would be appropriate uh legally. And I think um Anna, you were going to talk a little bit more about even beyond the legal aspect of it. >> Yeah. Yeah, and I think this actually kind of t speaks to one of the questions that just popped up in the chat. Um, campaigning as a block with free advertising. It'll sort of touch on that. So, we have the legal or is
050it wise? So, we really have to think about um although maybe something is legal, what is this going to look like um from a public perception? what is this or how is this going to impact you um should you be elected or not elected uh in the future. So um the questions that we have here on this slide and often that we hear from IASB this is pulled from feedback from past uh board members um and um citizen calls that we've received from potential uh candidates. Um, so as we read through these questions, just try to think about uh beyond the actual campaign and into those future implications. So if I run as a block or a group, what might the impact look like? So um let's say you win, but the other two candidates
051in the block with you did not win. So how might this impact the relationship you have with other board members who are not a part of that group? Um, and that's more of a relational kind of a um PR personal relations um consideration. Um, so running as a block could also set up group expectations. Um, so for instance, just kind of a quick example, one of the three um, say it's a group of three, one of the three of the the the people promises to do XYZ. They're taking a really strong stance on this position or on this issue. and um maybe uh you just don't agree or um at least you don't have as strong of opinion on this uh issue. So, how might that impact the public's view of of you or what
052assumptions I guess could be made um regarding your opinion if one person of the block is speaking one way and really you're trying to advocate in a different direction? So, another example um uh we're thinking post election here. So, um you're kind of caught in a dilemma um if you end up at the school board and maybe you've learned a little bit more about um what it's like to be a part of a board. So, say 3 months go by, you've been a board member for that amount of time. You've learned a lot about school finance and uh bond referendums. Uh this is information you may not have known as a candidate. Uh and now it's starting to impact the way um you vote on a certain subject matter. Um so, this is where that
053dilemma lies. um many of your constituents or uh fellow members of the block assumed you may have been voting one way, but now that you've been exposed to more information or become more of a seasoned board member, you've decided, uh oh, this may not be the direction I want my vote to go. And you'll have to kind of ask yourself, what does that look like to the public eye? Um how does that set expectations? Yeah, just things to think about on the legal or is it wise perspective? Okay. So, we are going to move on. All of the information that we have learned today um this isn't just uh kind of a sit and get. This actually happens in real life. So, this is um the portion of the presentation where we invite Erica and
054Bailey to share some of their cautionary chairs on these uh on this subject matter. So, I will pass it on to you, too. Bailey, you want to start? >> Yes, I sure can. Um, so I I already mentioned this earlier in the presentation. Get more signatures than you need. Um, in our office, we're the filing officer for statewide and federal races. Um, and so we deal with some pretty hefty binders of um, petitions um, when we get them. Um, but it it it translates directly to local elections like school boards. Um, when you show up with just the number that you need, somebody's going to find something that doesn't isn't quite quite right. Um, they're missing uh the city or they didn't put the ditto mark in. Um, oh, I will say ditto marks are
055okay, but just remember that they ditto what's directly above. So if you have ditto, ditto, ditto, blank, ditto, they ditto the blank, that would be crossed out. And now you have one signature that you needed to have to meet meet your um your threshold. So always go above and beyond. get an extra 10, an extra 15, an extra 50, whatever the case might be depending on your um your the size of your jurisdiction, but just get more than you need. Um because there will be objections. An objection panel will be convened and they will decide whether or not to count the signatures. um we see this a lot more commonly than we have in the past which is I think kind of a sad state of affairs that um but at the same time you
056know everything's under scrutiny and when things are under scrutiny that means that they are being reviewed and addressed and and dealt with. So, um I I retract that statement, but um and just another reminder to turn in your paperwork to the board secretary, not the county auditor. Um I know that your city people that are running for your city council or mayor. Um they might be turning it into the city clerk or to the county auditor's office. It's different in every jurisdiction except for school boards. School boards always turn things in to your school board secretary. Um so turn them in early because they will then take a look at it and say, "Oh, you're missing this." Or, "Oh, your nomination petition um header was wrong, so you have to go back and get another
05750 signatures because this isn't right." They'll look at that when you turn it in. So then you're not, you know, you don't have enough time to go back and get the extra signatures that you need. Um, this happens way more than I would like to admit, but it happens all the time. So, I will turn it over to Erica for the other cautionary tales. Yes. So, um, these last two we talked about under the conflict of interest, how you cannot use, uh, government resources for your express advocacy. So, if you're sending campaign emails to school emails, those school emails are public resources. Um, I will guarantee that if a campaign email is sent to a school email, we will receive a copy of it. Um, we people do send it. We get questions all the
058time. Are they allowed to um say this to us? Are they allowed to send this to us on our emails? Um, so do not utilize it. Remember, if you're campaigning, utilize the private resources, private emails, um those types of things. Do uh similarly, teacher mailboxes are are government resources. Sending campaign mail to that would be in violation of Iowa code u which has that prohibition against using government resources for campaigning. Um and uh again I can guarantee that we will receive a copy of it and we will know who sent it and um so you would be hearing from our office on that. So just make sure that if you're sending out campaign emails, it's going to private um emails. Um, you're not using the teachers mailboxes to send information about express advocacy for ballot
059issues or for specific board members who are running for office. I saw a question pop up, but I wasn't able to read it fast enough. Thanks, Eric. I'll get this for you. If the candidate answers the running to fill a vacancy due to death, etc. wrong and crosses it off. Are those papers okay? >> You you shall not change a nomination petition header after uh signatures have been collected. So if you have signatures on that paper that said I am running to fill a vacancy and they realized oh shoot I'm not and then they try to cross it out all of those signatures are null and void. get it right the first time. It I I that might sound pretty harsh, but um the people signing your petition need to know what they're signing. Um,
060and there are some there's a little bit of wiggle room where it's like, well, okay, I if you left it blank, if you didn't check yes or no, but there is no other uh position on the ballot, then obviously, you know, it doesn't really matter if it's to fill vacancy or not to fill vacancy. But I will I will really truly die on the hill of you do not change a nomination petition once you've collected signatures on it. that invalidates the signatures. >> I'm just going to add this. I I don't know if it was meant as an additional question, but this board secretary also commented, "I don't know if it was crossed off before or not." >> I would say if if it's crossed out, that would say to me that it was done
061after signatures were collected. because if it were before signatures were collected, you would have just used a new sheet and used a new page. Um, but this is these are the kinds of questions that unfortunately um don't have really great answers because I feel like I say this a lot. Um, Iowa law does not contemplate what happens when it's not followed. Um, so there isn't always clear guidance and well what happens if this wasn't done like well then I guess it goes through the court. Um, so in this situation of I signed a petition but it was crossed out. I'm not sure when it was done. those petition papers could be objected to and presented to an objection panel which is laid out in law and they would review it and take in evidence and
062make a decision from that. that I know um Iowa code expects to be followed essentially um and we we don't have a lot of mechanisms for um for fixing it when it doesn't. So you got to get it right the first time. and some because if if I were an objection panel and I was presented with nomination petition pages that could have potentially been altered after receiving signatures, I personally would go ahead and throw those out because I would like to have a a clean, fresh, correct nomination petition in front of me that that I'm signing and then receiving as a filing officer. So, I don't have a great answer for that, but again, get it get it done right the first time. >> Okay, so I do see we have some questions coming in,
063but we are running up on time unless Bailey and Erica wanted to stay a little longer to answer some. Um, our contact information is part of these slides. our communications uh ISB's communications team um has a wealth of knowledge on um election um questions and we also have an ele board election toolkit that is open to the community. Yeah, looks like we actually have quite a few coming through um if you >> Yeah, I can hang out for a little bit. >> Okay. Yeah, that sounds great. Um otherwise, yep, um feel free to email or contact us. Um, I am going to throw up this uh resources page quick so we can look at this while we may answer a few extra questions. Bailey, thank you. Erica, if you want to stay longer, you can,
064but otherwise, completely understand. Want to respect time. >> I'm happy to stick around. I think most of the questions are for Bailey, but I'm happy to stick around. >> Um, objection panel laws are uh I want to say chapter 43. Um, that's the primary chapter. Um, I think that's where a lot of them that them are. 49. Also, we can if you have specific questions about school board objection panels, I can find that, but just email me. I'm not going to dig it up right now. Um, if the header information was typed in the form and printed and then the candidate wrote in the district name, that's fine. Yeah, it doesn't have to all be printed out, you know, from a computer. I mean, you can absolutely handwrite things. Um the the point that I
065wanted to make was you can't go back in and change things afterwards. But completely understand that yeah if you because at the um the state level right you have um everything printed out and then you have to hand write in the county. Um so that's that's totally reasonable. Crossed out address by a citizen. Should they go to another row playing right above it? Well, either um yeah, there's nothing I mean, yeah, either way is fine. They can if there's room to get it in there and be legible above it, they can. Um if they write it in the row below, that's fine. It just that row that's crossed out is not going to be counted by the counters dealing with the signatures. Um, given that this is now >> I can I can take that
066one because I think there's some misunderstanding. The I believe that you're referring to the open meetings open records um law requiring um training within 90 days of being appointed or elected to your position. Um, and I know you guys have something and I know IB has that training, but I don't uh this would not apply for that. No, that that training is um wholly separate from election umformational presentations which is what what this is. Um open meeting laws and open record laws um are separate but ISB will be providing a virtual option if if this is the question or the direction the question is going. We will provide a virtual option. it is um in collaboration with AEA learning and that would be a one board member at a time um training um and that
067would have to be requested and registered etc. Um and then otherwise uh there should be other options in the future for that training. Um oh how do I get that training? So yep as I said before that virtual training for ISB is um under development. We also be hopefully be offering a closing session at um and I'm unsure if the the question is coming from someone who is uh newly elected or not but that training will be hosted at ISB's annual convention also known as board con at our closing session so we can uh provide that to a larger audience and then if anyone's familiar with ISB workshops we're also hoping to create a training that's very similar or runs parallel to the the workshop training um and meets those um legal requirements. Um as
068Erica Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Bailey. >> I was just going to say that also when you receive your notification that you have won the election, you also receive a a copy of chapters 21 and 22, which are the open records and open meetings uh chapters of Iowa code. Um the county commissioners, the auditors are required to send that to you along with your winner certificate. So, um, yes, training is amazing and should happen 100%, but you do get the actual physical chapters 21 and 22 that that do cover it. And I always try to tell people that the code is not as scary as it seems to be. It's it's pretty pretty readable. >> Yeah. So, as far as getting that that training, um to Bailey's point, it is important to become familiar with those
069code sections on on your own time. And um uh also there's just a variety of ways to access that training through IPIB, through ISB, there's other organizations and uh that I know have um applied for um facilitating that training. And so if if you really want to just reach out and um we can easily find a or or at least ISB can find the best direction for you on how to access that training. But yeah, if there's no other questions, I think we may wrap up and give a big thank you to Bailey and Erica for taking time to offer us all of this information. Again, here's the resources and reach out if you have any other questions. >> Thanks everybody. the opportunity.