This statute protects the integrity of the election process by promoting truthfulness in campaign advertising. This statute is also important in increasing the wealth of information available to the electorate. The State of Nevada's interest in preserving the integrity of the election process by preventing actual and perceived corruption has been found to be a compelling state interest by the United States Supreme Court.
While the affidavit reveals the name of the petition circulator and is a public record, it is tuned to the speaker's interest as well as the State's. Unlike a name badge worn at the time a circulator is soliciting signatures, the affidavit is separated from the moment the circulator speaks.... [T]he name badge requirement forces circulators to reveal their identities at the same time they deliver their political message; it operates when reaction to the circulator's message is immediate and may be the most intense, emotional, and unreasoned. The affidavit, in contrast, does not expose the circulator to the risk of heat of the moment harassment.
True, in [a] portion of the Buckley [v. Valeo ] opinion we expressed approval of a requirement that “independent expenditures” in excess of a threshold level be reported to the Federal Election Commission. But that requirement entailed nothing more than an identification to the Commission of the amount and use of money expended in support of a candidate. Though such mandatory reporting undeniably impedes protected First Amendment activity, the intrusion is a far cry from compelled self-identification on all election related writings. A written election-related document—particularly a leaflet—is often a personally crafted statement of a political viewpoint.... As such, identification of the author against her will is particularly intrusive; it reveals unmistakably the content of her thoughts on a controversial issue. Disclosure of an expenditure and its use, without more, reveals far less information. It may be information that a person prefers to keep secret, and undoubtedly it often gives away something about the spender's political views. Nonetheless, even though money may “talk,” its speech is less specific, less personal, and less provocative than a handbill—and as a result, when money supports an unpopular viewpoint it is less likely to precipitate retaliation.
The simple interest in providing voters with additional relevant information does not justify a state requirement that a writer make statements or disclosures she would otherwise omit. Moreover, in the case of a handbill written by a private citizen who is not known to the recipient, the name and address of the author add little, if anything, to the reader's ability to evaluate the document's message. Thus, Ohio's informational interest is plainly insufficient to support the constitutionality of its disclosure requirement.
Ohio has not shown that its interest in preventing the misuse of anonymous election-related speech justifies a prohibition of all uses of that speech. The State may, and does, punish fraud directly. But it cannot seek to punish fraud indirectly by indiscriminately outlawing a category of speech, based on its content, with no necessary relationship to the danger sought to be prevented. One would be hard pressed to think of a better example of the pitfalls of Ohio's blunder-buss approach than the facts of the case before us.
Every person who is not under the direction or control of a candidate for an office at a primary election, primary city election, general election or general city election, of a group of such candidates or of any person involved in the campaign of that candidate or group who makes an expenditure on behalf of the candidate or group which is not solicited or approved by the candidate or group, and every committee for political action, political party or committee sponsored by a political party which makes an expenditure on behalf of such a candidate or group of candidates shall ... report each expenditure made during the period on behalf of the candidate, the group of candidates or a candidate in the group of candidates in excess of $100....
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