Election 2026 candidates beware: The Guam Election Commission can now issue fines of up to $1,000 per violation for failing to report campaign donations properly and on time, while organizations making improper donations will face fines of $5,000.
Candidates, parties, and political organizations will also have to file quarterly reports with the GEC, thanks to changes to Guam campaign finance laws made since the last election in 2024.
Changes – and especially the fines – were discussed by GEC Executive Director Maria Pangelinan at a Tuesday night Election Commission meeting.
Though the Guam Election Commission has long had the authority to issue fines, it did not have an actual schedule for what those fines would be, or rules for the fines, until last weekend.
Election oversight chair Sen. Telo Taitague’s Bill 189-35, establishing the fine schedule, was quietly passed by lawmakers earlier this month and signed by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero last Saturday.
“We have never fined anyone for filing late, so now we have something,” GEC’s Pangelinan said Tuesday night.
Fines range from $25 to $100 per day for late financial reports, and can go to $500 or $1,000 for reports that are not filed, based on the new fine schedule.
Filing false reports, submitting a campaign contribution under a false name, or failing to keep records or invoices on campaign finance reports are all punishable by fines of $1,000.
Donations above the $1,000 cap per candidate, per election, are punishable by fines of up to $1,000, based on how much money is donated above the cap.
Likewise, campaign advertisements that lack required campaign disclosures are liable for fines of $50 per advertisement, up to a cap of $5,000.
A bank, corporation or labor organization that makes an improper campaign contribution can get slapped with a $5,000 fine. A recipient who accepts that donation will be fined $1,000.
Pangelinan on Tuesday said that candidate seminars, which will answer questions about campaign finance reporting, start in January.
Seminars will be held on the second Wednesday and Thursday of each month, she said, and candidates can attend more than once.
Candidate filing for Election 2026 opens on Feb. 23, with GEC approval of the election timeline on Tuesday night.
GEC’s lack of a fine schedule or rules had stalled penalties back in the 2022 primary election, when a large number of candidates failed to file campaign finance reports on time.
That year, some 20 candidates and political organizations missed deadlines to file their financial reports for the primary election, and eight were so late that their reports were considered not filed in GEC records.
Notably, the Democratic Party of Guam and Sens. Will Parkinson and Vince Borja, then just candidates, were several weeks late on their financial reports, the Pacific Daily News reported.
Speaker Frank Blas Jr. and Sen. Sabina Perez likewise missed a Sept. 12, 2022, filing deadline by a few days.
Several candidates told the PDN at the time that they either did not know they were supposed to file certain documents or never got a notice from GEC that they were late.
Despite the large number of tardy financial reports that year, GEC never issued any fines due to a lack of a fine schedule or rules for the fines.
Pangelinan at the time told the PDN that the Election Commission also had issues with keeping enough staff on top of filing deadlines, with all reports coming due at the same time while elections were in full swing.
Quarterly financial reporting requirements, enacted earlier this year, are another campaign finance reform meant to help with oversight.