More than 80 candidates running for elected office this year have been fined by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission for violating campaign laws. The majority of fines relate to a recently enforced law requiring candidates to publicly disclose spending on advertisements within 24 hours of entering into a contract.

About 60 candidates in this year’s primary election either filed late or did not file at all, even though commission staff said they have been working to educate candidates about the law since 2016. Included in the list are many veteran politicians, including Gov. David Ige, House Speaker Scott Saiki, Rep. Andria Tupola, Sen. Rosalyn Baker, Rep. Dee Morikawa, Rep. Mark Naka­shima, Rep. Cedric Gates, Rep. Lynn DeCoite, Rep. Kyle Yamashita, Sen. Clarence Nishihara and Sen. Lorraine Inouye.

The state Campaign Spending Commission has backed a bill in the Legislature for the past two years to try to make the law less confusing, but state lawmakers haven’t given it much notice. The House version of the bill never received a hearing during this year’s legislative session that ended in May, while the Senate version stalled once it crossed over to the House. Commissioners posited during their monthly meeting on Wednesday that the bill might get more attention next year in light of the dozens of fines.

Most of the fines, totaling tens of thousands of dollars, were approved by the commission on Wednesday, while others were approved last month.

The law relates to a clunky term called “electioneering communications,” which refers to ads placed on television, the radio, newspapers, social media and other forums. Once a candidate or a political action committee surpasses $2,000 in advertising spending, they must file a form with the Campaign Spending Commission each time they contract for a new ad. The forms include information on the vendor, how much is being spent and the dates the ad ran. The forms, which are made public on the commission’s website, also disclose spending on negative campaign ads.

The law provides the public with near immediate information about candidates’ spending on advertising during an election. Otherwise, this information is only available when a candidate or PAC files their spending reports. During this year’s primary, there were two major candidate deadlines for these reports, July 12 and Aug. 1.

The law, for instance, allowed the media and public to follow $3.76 million in advertising expenditures in this year’s primary by the SuperPAC Be Change Now, a committee financed by the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters. The SuperPAC’s advertising went to produce sophisticated ads for Sen. Josh Green, who is running for lieutenant governor, Congresswoman Colleen Hana­­busa’s unsuccessful bid to beat Gov. David Ige in the Democratic primary and Honolulu City Council candidate Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who lost his race to unseat Councilwoman Carol Fuku­naga.

The commission began enforcing the law in 2016 and held off on fining candidates and PACs until this year. The fine for a late filing is $250 and the fine for failing to file is $500. The commission reduced most fines by two-thirds upon the recom­mendation of staff.

Some of the fines for candidates reached into the thousands of dollars. For instance, Inouye was facing the biggest fine, $10,000, an amount that was reduced to $3,333. The fines included failing to file for Facebook boosts, which are ads that can cost as little as $20.