29. Federal Election Commission · Minor
Extend the no-prosecution rule to 3-3 deadlocked FEC votes
Printed page 864 29. Federal Election Commission
“Furthermore, this rule should apply even when there is a tied or three-to-three vote by the FEC commissioners whether in an enforcement action or an advisory opinion since under the statute, the FEC cannot take any action unless there are four affirmative votes.”
What has happened
- Not started
The rule this Quote extends (#2221) was never made, so there is nothing to extend. No presidential or Department instruction treats a 3-3 FEC vote as a bar to prosecution, and the Justice Manual section governing campaign-finance charging is suspended rather than rewritten. The point is not academic in the window: the FEC has had no quorum since October 2025 and cannot muster four votes on anything, so every enforcement matter and advisory opinion request now fails for want of votes.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Cluster negative search with #2220, #2221 and #2222 in
docs/research/ch-29.md. - The Commission’s inability to reach four votes is documented in its own weekly digests, which record Notices of Lack of Quorum filed in the D.D.C. through at least 2026-08-25 (https://www.fec.gov/updates/week-of-august-24-28-2026/).
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- DOJ prosecutions following deadlocked FEC votes
- ID
- 2223