Best Practices for CA Warnings & Errors

Applies To: California

Not all compliance report errors and warnings are the same. In fact, some of them can be very difficult to discern. Below are some things to keep in mind or attempt if you receive an error or warning you are unsure about.

First, when it comes to the CA filing system, it’s well over 20 years old. In dog years, that’s at least 140 years old. Due to this, there may be days where you experience trouble filing the report.

Perhaps the most common issue CA filers encounter is the system getting overloaded. Typically this happens on heavy filing days. Your best bet is to wait an hour or so, then try filing the report again.

Unfortunately, when their system is bogged down, there isn’t anything we can do to push the report through. However, send us an email anyway, as this creates a paper trail and we can use that if we need to follow up with the Secretary of State. If you do reach out to us, please also be sure to include a screenshot of the error you are receiving, as well as the report criteria.

The following error messages can be ignored if the filer is not a candidate committee:

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s last name is missing. Field: 49

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s first name is missing. Field: 50

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s address is missing. Field: 53

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s city is missing. Field: 55

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s state is missing. Field: 56

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Candidate/Officeholder’s zip is missing. Field: 57

The following error messages can be ignored if the filer is not formed to support/oppose a specific candidate or measure:

This is a warning for line: 2
Form/Schedule: F460 Record Type: CVR
Support/Oppose is missing. Field: 70