Over the last four months, the state Board of Elections has excused hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for candidates who have failed to file quarterly finance reports or filed them late.
This flurry follows years in which the Board has been frustrated by the courts, which, when asked by offenders, have regularly significantly reduced the fines because judges have considered the fines to be excessive.
It also comes more than four years after the Boad stopped posting its aging fines report, listing nearly 130 candidates and political organizations statewide that have failed to file their campaign finance reports, or filed them late…