Data Acquisition
The Nevada Secretary of State provides access to campaign finance reports in two ways:
- Aurora Website – The Nevada SOS “AURORA” website provides several interfaces for browsing campaign finance information, including committee searches for viewing complete filed reports and transaction searches for finding individual contributions and expenditures.
- Bulk CSV Downloads – Contributions, expenditures, candidates, groups, and reports can be downloaded in comma-separated-value (CSV) files. You must create an account on their website to download the data.
Transparency USA downloads and imports the bulk CSV files.
Reported Data
Transparency USA processes six CSV file types – contributions, contacts, expenditures, candidates, groups, and reports.
Candidates/Groups
These records represent the candidates and groups (committees) registered to file campaign finance reports with the state.
Transparency USA imports all these records because they are the basis for transactional filing.
Contacts (Contributors)
The contributors file contains “contacts” representing both the contributors giving contributions as well as the payees receiving expenditures from groups and candidates.
Transparency USA imports all these records because they are necessary to complete contribution and expenditure transaction data.
Contributions
These records include all contributions, including monetary and non-monetary, in-kind contributions.
On the Nevada website report summary, “Total Monetary Contributions Received in Excess of $100“ and “Total Amount of all Contributions of $100 or less” are separate line items. These are combined into one contribution type in the provided downloads, “Monetary Contribution,” so they do not appear separately on the Transparency USA website.
Additionally, the report summary does not include in-kind contributions less than or equal to $100. However, these transactions are included in the downloaded CSV and are listed on the Transparency USA website, which could result in higher contribution totals than the Nevada report summary.
Transparency USA imports all data from these files.
Expenditures
These records include all expenditures, including monetary and non-monetary, in-kind expenditures.
On the Nevada website report summary, “Total Monetary Expenses Received in Excess of $100“ and “Total Amount of all Expenses of $100 or less” are separate line items. These are combined into one contribution type in the provided downloads, “Monetary Expense,” so they do not appear separately on the Transparency USA website.
In-kind expenses less than or equal to $100 are treated similarly to in- kind contributions. They are not included in the Nevada report summary but are in the downloaded CSV, resulting in higher totals on the Transparency USA website than the Nevada report summary.
Transparency USA imports all data from these files.
Reports
Reports contain information about each individual report filed by a committee, such as filing dates and amendment statuses. Unfortunately, these records do not contain the summary information listed on the Nevada website.
While Transparency USA does not display any raw cover information on the website, we use the amended flag to exclude duplicate transactions.
Electronic Filing Requirements
State law requires that all Contributions & Expenses Reports / Financial Disclosure Statements be filed electronically with the Secretary of State’s office using the AURORA, Campaign Finance Disclosure system.
Additional Information
The Nevada website displays more information than they make available in the downloaded CSV, specifically:
- Contribution descriptions
- Expense descriptions
- Expense categories
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.