The Law on Captioning Campaign Ads

Section 10A.38 defines how a candidate (who accepts public funds) must caption their campaign advertisements, whether audio or video. This means all podcasts, webcasts, and television advertisements must be captioned. The candidate can provide alternate resources such as a transcript on their website.

In sum:
A candidate must include closed captioning on his/her televised and website video ads if:

• The candidate received the public subsidy for financing his/her campaign
• The ads are professionally produced visual or audio recordings that are two minutes or less
• The candidate did not file with the campaign finance board the reasons for not captioning prior to the dissemination of the ad.
• The candidate can also provide a transcript online for his/her website ads instead of captioning.
• The candidate must also include on his/her website a transcript of all his/her radio advertisements unless s/he has filed with the campaign finance board before the ads were disseminated.

This law was passed in 2008, so the candidates and their campaigns should know about it and already be in compliance.

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