More senators opt to e-file campaign disclosures

A small but increasing number of U.S. senators — the only federal politicians still allowed to submit campaign finance reports on paper — are opting to voluntarily file their disclosures electronically.

Fourteen current senators chose to e-file their first-quarter campaign finance reports, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Federal Election Commission records. For Senate campaigns filing on paper, it can take weeks, if not months, to get detailed information about who is bankrolling senators and Senate hopefuls. The FEC pays to manually key in the information contained on paper reports before uploading it into its publicly accessible online databases. Similar information is available online immediately for House candidates, members of the U.S. House of Representative, presidential candidates and political action committees once those groups e-file their reports.