The public won’t have to wait as long to get a close look at who’s donating to political candidates this year thanks to a new law signed last week that moves the filing deadline up to July 12.

In the past, candidates filed on July 31 of the election year. But since the primary is Aug. 11 this year — five weeks earlier than in 2010 — the Campaign Spending Commission asked the Legislature to amend the law.

Instead of a set date, the law now requires candidates to file their preliminary reports 30 days prior to the primary election. That leaves candidates three weeks to file their reports or face fines.

Without the change, candidates this year would have had to file back-to-back reports, July 31 and Aug. 1. That’s because the next report is due 10 days before the election.

Tony Baldomero, the commission’s associate director, said the July 12 filing only applies to candidates on the primary election ballot. So OHA candidates, for instance, are exempt because their names only appear on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

The Aug. 1 filing deadline includes the primary election candidates, he said, but also the non-candidate committees and corporations, which would be filing their first report of the 2012 election.

The governor signed the bill June 15. Soon after, the commission posted the news on its website to help get the word out to the candidates and their campaign committees.

Baldomero also tweeted about it, posted it on Facebook and emailed all the candidates.

Common Cause Hawaii, a nonpartisan group that advocates for greater accountability in government, supported the amendment. The nonprofit’s executive director, Nikki Love, said the change was necessary to ensure disclosure and transparency, and avoid the redundancy of having two reporting deadlines only one day apart.