Data Acquisition
The Alabama Electronic Fair Campaign Practices Act Reporting System (FCPA) provides access to campaign finance reports in two ways:
- FCPA Website – The Alabama FCPA website provides several interfaces for browsing campaign finance information, including candidate and committee searches for viewing complete, filed reports.
- Bulk CSV Downloads – Contributions, expenditures, and committees can be downloaded in comma-separated-value (CSV) files.
Transparency USA downloads and imports the bulk CSV files.
Reported Data
Transparency USA processes all CSV file types: Cash Contributions, In-Kind Contributions, Other Receipts, and Expenditures. Using their search and export functionality, we generate a list of active and dissolved candidates and committees.
Candidates/Committees
These records represent the candidates and committees registered to file campaign finance reports with the state.
Contributions
These records include all contributions, including monetary and non-monetary in-kind contributions.
Additionally, “Other Receipts” are imported as contributions, which include interest, refunds, and returned contributions. These transactions can be negative amounts, decreasing the reported contributions on Transparency USA.
Transparency USA imports all data from these files.
Expenditures
These records include all monetary expenditures but do not include non-monetary in-kind expenditures.
Transparency USA imports all data from these files.
Loans
These records include all loans reported on the “Receipts” form.
On the state website, loans are categorized as receipts and considered contributions. At Transparency USA, we have a separate loans tab and do not display them as contributions. Additionally, we do not track whether a loan has been repaid or forgiven.
Electronic Filing Requirement
All state, statewide, and county candidates must file their FCPA disclosure reports online at fcpa.alabamavotes.gov.
Additional Information
On the Alabama website, the reported PDFs display more information than they make available in the downloaded CSVs, specifically the Reports/Cover Summaries, including Cash on Hand. This information is particularly helpful in other states where it is provided.
Party Information
Transparency USA displays the current party affiliation for active candidates and officeholders. The party information displayed may not be accurate:
- For candidates who are not actively running for or serving in state-level office
- When accessing candidate or officeholder data from previous election cycles
Party affiliation for active candidates and officeholders is provided by Ballotpedia.