What Happens to Nonprofit Organizations that have filed 2006 Business Entity Annual Disclosures with ELEC?

On Tuesday, September 25, 2007, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) temporarily suspended the obligation of nonprofit organizations to file a 2006 Business Entity Annual Statement with the Commission by the September 28 filing deadline. (The Commission will consider whether nonprofits are subject to the annual disclosure requirement at its October 23, 2007 meeting.) In light of this late-breaking change, what can a nonprofit do if it has already filed its 2006 Business Entity Annual Statement with ELEC? Because the filing mechanism does not distinguish between nonprofit and for-profit business entities, ELEC has no way of determining which Annual Disclosures belong to a for-profit entity and which Annual Disclosures belong to a nonprofit entity. Thus, a nonprofit organization that wishes to withdraw a Business Entity Annual Disclosure may do so by submitting a written request to ELEC. The request should be addressed to ELEC’s Special Programs office and may be sent via fax to 609-292-4238 or mail to: Special Programs, Election Law Enforcement Commission, P.O. Box 185, Trenton, NJ 08625-0185. A nonprofit organization submitting such a request must indicate the exact name of the organization that filed the report and state: “I am a nonprofit entity and I do not wish to have my ‘Business Entity’ Form disclosed.” Because ELEC expects the 2006 Annual Disclosures to become public on October 10, 2007, nonprofit organizations wishing to withdraw a filing should act quickly.