Christine O’Donnell Amends Fundraising Report, Blames Software For $230,000 Error

Failed Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell amended finance reports to show what seems to be previously undisclosed expenditures for travel expenses and $230,000 less in monies than was previously disclosed.

In an April 15 memorandum to the Federal Election Commission, O’Donnell campaign committee lawyer Cleta Mitchell said the committee had retained FEC compliance experts who reviewed the Delaware Republican’s campaign finance paperwork for the 2009-2010 election cycle.

According to Mitchell, the compliance experts discovered several “inadvertent” errors resulting from campaign software used in 2009 and early 2010.

Interestingly, O’Donnell’s attorney first blamed not having the proper software to get the figures correct, and then, upon obtaining the software, blamed software glitches for incorrect numbers.

Mitchell told the AP that the 2009 reports were filed before the campaign could afford compliance software, and that 2010 reports filed after the campaign acquired a compliance reporting software system had to be amended because of glitches in that system.

But Mitchell could not explain why the committee’s amended year-end report for 2010 showed cash on hand at the close of the period of $424,130.08, when the original filing showed $654,336.15, a difference of $230,206.07…

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said Friday that she had not seen O’Donnell’s amended filings, but that she doubts that all the errors in previous filings could be attributed to computer software problems.

“A software glitch would really not explain how you sent a rent check out of your campaign account, a personal rent check,” she said. “So that just sounds like an excuse. I think you call this a user issue.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.