From the campaign treasurer to your computer's hard drive, data from the Federal Election Commission follows a tortured route. The paper records are filed first with the Clerk of the House or the Senate, who photocopies them and send them to the FEC on microfilm. The FEC then makes paper copies from the microfilm, keeps a copy for public view and sends a copy out to be keypunched. That data then is checked and made available to the Direct Access Program users. The good news is that the FEC makes a mammoth effort to have data on thousands of committees available as soon as possible after the reporting period deadlines. The bad news is that the smallest keypunch errors can wreak havoc on a news story.
Recently a problem cropped up in the amounts each candidate was supposedly contributing to their own campaign: For a while, the records showed Senate hopeful Michael Huffington giving his campaign $2 million more than he actually did, although that may have been hard to see in a campaign where he chipped in $28 million of his own money.
But take the case of Kyle McSlarrow in his losing campaign for Virginia's 8th district. Just two keypunch errors accounted for a $3 million mistake in a campaign where he spent less than $700,000. The FEC is working to correct the errors and the best advice is to sum all figures and check, check, check those totals.
The majority of the useful information and the type most easily accessible for stories on deadline-hangs out in two major areas: The "5" report section for PACs, party committees and other committees, and the "1" report section for individual donors. The FEC supplies totals for almost every search.