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New DA misses filing deadline

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayette County’s new top prosecutor says he has run afoul of ethics requirements for filing campaign contribution reports, but he is working to correct the mistakes.

Scott Ballard, elected district attorney over incumbent Bill McBroom in the July primary, said he failed to file a current campaign contribution disclosure report by Oct. 25. It should be submitted sometime today, Ballard said Tuesday afternoon.

Ballard said he and his treasurer, Mark Hall, were unaware of the latest deadline to file a new campaign disclosure form and a requirement to file hard copies of the report along with the electronic versions.

Ballard told The Citizen about the missed report when a reporter called to ask about a flub with his previously filed forms, which his campaign filed electronically.

Georgia law requires the forms also to be filed in paper format, but an employee of the Secretary of State’s office said Monday that Ballard hadn’t filed the hard copies, and so a notice of the violation was forwarded to the state’s ethics commission.

The forms, which are public record, require that every contribution over $101 be listed with the name of the contributor. Also, candidates are required to detail any of their campaign expenditures above $101.

In his report filed for the Sept. 30 deadline, Ballard indicated that he had raised $42,161.73, compared to $73,315.48 in contributions reported by McBroom for the same date.