It’s been months since Rep. Scott Court was elected to the state House — and weeks since the Cody Republican finished his first session as a legislator — but he still has not provided the state with a formal accounting of the money he received and spent in his campaign.

Wyoming law requires candidates to file four reports over the course of an election cycle. A week before each election, they must file a list of who’s given them money; then 10 days after the election, they must update their list of contributors and detail how much money they spent on their campaign.

Court is now more than six months late on his reports from the primary and more than four months late with his reports from the general election.

“I need to file my report,” Court said in a Jan. 29 email to the Tribune. “I’ve been so busy that it slipped through the cracks.”

He added that his campaign “was very low-key.”

The House District 24 representative provided the Tribune with a rough rundown of his contributions and spending, guessing he spent around $500 in advertising in the general election. Court said $200 came from the Wyoming Petroleum Association, another $100 came from the Park County Republican Party and the rest came from his own pockets.

“I didn’t solicit campaign contributions and did not receive any except for the ones I just mentioned,” Court said.

Despite a low-profile campaign, Court upset then-Rep. Sam Krone in August’s Republican primary and handily defeated a pair of better-known — and apparently better-funded — candidates in the general election.

Just two-and-a-half weeks before the August primary, Krone was charged with felony and misdemeanor crimes alleging he embezzled thousands of dollars from the Park County Bar Association years earlier. Krone wound up doing little campaigning: he received $1,550 in contributions, but spent none of it, according to his campaign finance reports.

Republican voters chose Court by a 2.5 to 1 margin.

In November’s general election, Court got 46 percent of the vote to easily beat independent candidate Sandy Newsome (29.1 percent) and Democrat Paul Fees (24.5 percent). According to their reports, Fees raised and spent around $8,100 and Newsome $2,570.

Wyoming law lays out possible civil and criminal penalties for candidates who fail to file campaign finance reports; those include up to a year in jail and a $1,000 civil penalty. A candidate can also be prohibited from holding office until the required reports are turned in.

“The filings are not optional,” said State Election Director Kai Schon. “Current law mandates that candidates file campaign finance reports.”

The criminal penalties can be pursued by either a district attorney or the Wyoming Attorney General; the civil penalties can be pursued by those same prosecutors, a political party or a political candidate who’s been adversely affected by the violation.

It’s unclear whether anyone has ever been prosecuted for a violation.

State law requires the Secretary of State’s Office to notify the Wyoming Attorney General of the candidates who’ve failed to file their reports “for appropriate action,” but it’s unclear what, if any, action is taken.

Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the subject, made over the span of three months.

One of the questions the Tribune posed to both Michael and Schon was whether the lack of consequences sends a message that the reports are optional — and whether that’s fair to the candidates who take the time to submit the reports; Schon said that “the Secretary of State has raised the very same questions.”

Schon said he expects the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s Office will examine the “issues surrounding compliance with campaign finance laws” between now and the 2018 Budget Session.

To help candidates to comply with the law last year, Schon said his office sent email reminders four weeks before the elections and then a week before each report was due. If a candidate missed a deadline, they got an email notification the next day, he said.

The vast majority of the 185 candidates who ran for the Legislature last year got their reports in on time or just a little late, according to Secretary of State’s records analyzed by the Tribune. About 131 of the contenders, or 71 percent, hit the deadlines, while only 21 candidates — or 11 percent of the total — were more than a week late with a report.

As of last month, there were still about 15 candidates who had failed to file one or more of their required reports.

That list included another local candidate: Cindy Baldwin of Cody, who ran as an independent candidate against Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, in Senate District 18.

Baldwin filed her pre-general election report, detailing $14,612.97 in contributions, but hasn’t put together a post-election report to outline what she did with the money or disclose any last-minute donations.

Contacted by the Tribune last week, Baldwin said she thought she had filed everything that was required. Baldwin explained she had not received any contributions beyond what she reported in her pre-election report and thought she had detailed her spending in that report as well.

Baldwin said she planned to check with the Secretary of State’s Office.

While Court is not the only one who is missing reports, his tardiness stands out in a couple ways. He is one of only three legislative candidates who have failed to file any campaign finance information at all (the other two lost their elections). Additionally, every other candidate who was elected to the Legislature submitted their reports within a couple days of the final Nov. 18 deadline.

As of Monday, Court’s missing reports ranged between 122 and 223 days late.