The Maryland State Prosecutor's Office charged 77 individuals Thursday with violating state election laws for not filing campaign finance reports on time, including the treasurer for the campaign of former Frederick County State's Attorney Scott L. Rolle, who ran unsuccessfully for Maryland attorney general in 2008.

"Those were filed," said Rolle (R), who currently is serving as an active-duty captain in the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps. "There was a computer glitch, but I hadn't heard anything about [the charges]."

The charges covered a range of political figures, election campaign treasurers and chairmen, as well as those at political action committees. A total of 40 campaign finance committees were affected.

State election law requires all campaign finance committees to have a chairman and a treasurer and to file finance reports with the Maryland Board of Elections. The reports pertain to money raised and spent during the period covered by the report.

Deadline dates for the campaign finance reports vary for different campaigns. For example, a candidate with a continuing committee must file an annual report by the third Wednesday in January; a first pre-primary report by the fourth Tuesday before the primary election; a second pre-primary report by the second Friday before the primary election; a pre-general election report by the second Friday before a general election; and a post-general election report by the third Tuesday after a general election.

Warnings were sent to the committees that had not filed the reports before the charges were issued, according to a statement from the state prosecutor's office.

The office referred questions to Assistant State Prosecutor Shelly Glenn, who did not return calls before deadline.

The charges were filed through criminal summonses rather than arrest warrants. If convicted, the maximum sentence is a year in jail and a $25,000 fine for each count.

"I don't think anyone is going to jail about this," said attorney Dale Kelberman, who represents Del. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington. Waldstreicher was chairman of his campaign finance committee.

"In the case of Mr. Waldstreicher, this is the result of some confusion on the part of the Board of Elections," Kelberman said.

Waldstreicher did submit some campaign documents late, but the failure to file was not willful, Kelberman said.

"I think we're going to try to resolve this with the State Prosecutor's Office," Kelberman said.

Susan W. Turnbull, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, said there needs to be more education on the laws, particularly with smaller campaigns that rely on volunteers.

"We're committed to open and transparent elections and support campaign financing laws," Turnbull said. "We want to see the campaign finance laws are followed."

Staff Writer Douglas Tallman

contributed to this report.

For the full list of those charged, see www.gazette.net/links.