Virginia State Board of Elections : Electronic Filing

In order to promote and assist filers with e-filing their reports, SBE developed and distributes "VAFiling." The VAFiling program is a customized Microsoft Windows-based application that makes the electronic filing process easy and convenient for candidates, as well as political committees. SBE also offers periodic training sessions on the software and provides a Help Line support for all legislative candidates and political committees. VAFiling has many features that include maintaining, storing, reporting, and summarizing campaign finance related transactions (contributions, expenditures, loans, etc). VAFiling automates many of the tedious reporting & disclosure tasks such as keeping track of aggregate contributions and computing the total amount raised and spent in an election cycle.

There is no charge to use the software. Local candidates may contact us at cfda@sbe.virginia.gov in order to receive the necessary information for obtaining the software. Political Committees and candidates for Statewide office or the General Assembly simply need to sign the e-filing agreement on their Statement of Organization (SOO). Once SBE receives your SOO we will send you an acknowledgement letter which will provide you the necessary information for downloading the software.

In Virginia, electronic filing (e-filing) is mandatory for all statewide candidates and political committees that raise or spend more than $10,000 in a calendar year. E-filing is still voluntary for General Assembly candidates, but it is fast becoming the standard for legislative candidates. 123 of the 140 current members of the General Assembly e-file their Campaign Finance Reports. That is nearly 90% of current state legislators filing their reports electronically.

SBE also has standards and electronic filing specifications available for those candidates and political committees who wish to e-file using tools other than our VAFiling software. Candidates and committees thinking about using private companies to assist them with filing electronically may want to research more about SBE's Approved Vendors.