Unfair Advantage: The Abuse of State Resources in Elections For example, for “franked” communication127 – which cannot be used to advance electoral purposes – federal law and congressional rules prohibits mass mailings from being sent within 60 days of a Senator’s primary or general election or nominating convention to any public office, or within 60 days of a biennial federal general election.128 House Members may not send unsolicited mass mailings within 90 days of a Member’s primary or general election to any public office.129 The same moratoria also applies to House and Senate mass email communications.130 State governments in the U.S. may impose special restrictions or moratoria on official communications that are to be distributed to the public near the time of an election. Alaskan law, for example, says that a state legislator may not use state funds to print or distribute any communication “from or about” any person who is a candidate for federal, state, or local office within 60 days before an election.131 Nevada law imposes what is perhaps the longest moratorium by prohibiting the use of public funds for certain advertisements at any time after the candidate files a declaration of candidacy.132 Excerpts from U.S. state law: New York 2. …(a) no elected government official or candidate for elected local, state or federal office shall knowingly appear in any advertisement or promotion, including public or community service announcements, published or broadcast through any print or electronic media (including television, radio and internet) by any private or commercial entity or any other entity that publishes such advertisement for a fee, if the advertisement or promotion is paid for or produced in whole or in part with funds of the state, a political subdivision thereof or a public authority. U.S. federal government and state governments also impose content restrictions on official proceedings and Public Officers Law §73-b. Advertisements by elected government officials and candidates communications to the public to prevent their influence made with public funds; prohibited on the elections. Because federal law already bars executive branch employees from engaging in partisan election activity on the job, which would itself cover an agency employee’s posting of partisan election information on an agency website, information policies are principally focused on agencies’ linking to third-party content that could possibly be of a partisan nature.133 Federal law grants Members of the House of Representatives and United States Senators the privilege to send mail at taxpayers’ expense, provided that the mail solely pertains to the “official business, activities, and duties” of Congress; this privilege is known as the “frank” and it facilitates communication between Members of the House and Senate with each other, with federal and state government agencies, and with constituents. See 39 U.S.C. § 3210 (2006). 128 39 U.S.C. § 3210(a)(6)(C); see also U.S. Senate Select Comm. on Ethics, Regulations Governing the use of the Mailing Frank by Members and Officers of The United States Senate 14-15 (2008) [hereinafter Senate Franking Regulations]. 129 39 U.S.C. § 3210(a)(6)(A). House Members may consider an individual who subscribed to a Member‘s electronic communication or newsletter to be soliciting a response by his or her office. As a result, a communication to that individual would not be subject to the 90-day communications ban that applies to unsolicited communications. See House Ethics Manual, supra note 62, at 130. 130 See Franking FAQ, Committee House Admin., https://cha.house.gov/franking-commission/franking-faq (last visited Jul. 1, 2016); see also Senate Ethics Manual, supra note 62, at 173-74. 131 Ak. Stat. § 24.60.030(c). 132 Nev. Rev. Stat. § 281A.520(2)-(4) (2009). 133 OMB requires agencies to “appropriately limit external linking [from their official websites] to information or services necessary for the proper performance of an agency function.” Memorandum from Clay Johnson III, Deputy Director for Management, Off. Mgmt and Budget, to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Policies for Federal Agency Public Websites 2 (2004), available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/ 127 memoranda/fy2005/m05-04.pdf. 17