NOM Fined for Violating Maine Campaign Finance Law

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage

The antigay National Organization for Marriage was slapped with a $2,000 fine in Maine for missing a campaign finance deadline in the weeks before Mainers voted to uphold marriage equality on November 6, reports the Kennebec Journal.

The Maine ethics commission Wednesday voted unanimously to fine NOM for missing an October 26 deadline by 14 hours, concluding that the antigay group violated state law requiring it to file its 11-day pre-general election report, according to the Journal. State law allows for a fine up to $8,000, but the commission decided to reduce the maximum by 75% because the NOM missed the deadline so narrowly.

"The report was only 14 hours late," ethics commission executive director Jonathan Wayne told the Journal. "And half of those [hours] happened in the night when members of the public weren't on our website [looking for information]."

This is by no means the first time NOM has been accused of unlawful campaign finance practices. In October the U.S. Supreme Court denied NOM's appeal to avoid disclosing donors to its successful 2009 effort to rescind marriage equality in Maine. Voters in Maine overturned that 2009 result November 6 by becoming the first in the nation to affirm marriage equality at the ballot box. NOM has also been accused of violating campaign finance laws in Minnesota.