Marshall County Election Board to hold hearing on campaign finance complaint against council candidate

The Marshall County Election Board voted Tuesday to proceed with a formal hearing regarding a campaign finance complaint filed against County Council District Two candidate Deborah Johnson.

The complaint, filed by Terry Borggren in an April 23 letter to County Clerk Jenny Bennett, alleges numerous errors and reporting discrepancies in the pre-primary financial reports submitted by Johnson's campaign committee, "Conservatives for Johnson."

"In the report, I have found numerous errors and reporting discrepancies," Borggren stated in his letter. "These are the mistakes I found; there may be more."

During Tuesday's public meeting, two primary concerns were outlined by the board: inaccurate disclosure statements on printed campaign materials and an incomplete CFA-4 campaign finance form.

According to Borggren, the submitted financial forms appear to show that Tim Harmon paid for some of Johnson's political materials, which were listed as in-kind contributions and loans. Borggren argued that if another individual or committee paid for the materials, the disclaimer on the signs and literature should state approved by Conservatives for Johnson and paid for by Tim Harmon. Currently, all of Johnson's campaign materials solely state they were paid for by "Conservatives for Johnson," despite corresponding vendor expenses matching Harm0n's contributions.

Borggren's second concern centered on incomplete and inaccurate information on Johnson's CFA-4 form. He noted that two separate $1,000 contributions were listed without the required donor occupations. Additionally, Borggren stated there were multiple instances where incorrect amounts were entered into the form's boxes, leading to inaccurate overall financial reporting.

A further discrepancy was noted regarding the document's timeline: the report was time-stamped as received by the Marshall County Clerk's office on April 16, but the signature on the financial report was dated April 17.

Following the presentation of the complaint, the Election Board voted to move forward with a formal hearing, which is scheduled for May 8 at 2:00 p.m. in the Clerk's office.

Following Tuesday's meeting, Johnson had the option to accept the official notification letter regarding the upcoming hearing in person. However, she opted to have the letter sent via mail. This decision gives her a few additional days to make corrections to her filings, while also increasing the administrative cost to the Election Board.

Attendees at Tuesday's meeting included Republican board member Steve Harper, Democratic board member Suzie Kreighbaum, County Clerk Jenny Bennett, County Election Administrator Mindy Kielman, candidate Deb Johnson, Terry Borggren, and Nicole Cox.