VIDALIA — A look at campaign finance reports for candidates in the Vidalia police chief’s race shows that one candidate accepted a contribution over the state-mandated limit, while the other appears to be late in filing.

Candidate Joey Merrill said his acceptance of a $2,500 donation from Delta Oil Tools was based on a misreading of the information packet he was given when he qualified for office. The cap for donations from individuals and businesses to give to candidates in a local election is $1,000.

Merrill reported the donation in the finance report due 30 days before the election.

“It was a family member who gave me that, and at the time I wasn’t aware there was a cap on it until someone told me there was,” he said. “After that, I read my pamphlet, but I mistook the section about expenditures for the section about donations.”

Chris Sommers, the director of the Louisiana Ethics Commission’s campaign finance and lobbying division, said this week that candidates who have received donations over the limit can refund the excess to the donor and demonstrate that it has been done without an automatic penalty.

Merrill said after he was made aware of the issue Friday, he contacted the Ethics Commission to find out what he needed to do to rectify the situation.

“They said it was a common mistake, and as long as I refunded it and reported it in my next report, it wouldn’t be a big deal,” he said.

Merrill raised $5,200 and spent $4,416 for the reported period. He had 13 donors, of which four — approximately 31 percent — listed addresses outside Vidalia. All four non-Vidalia donors were listed with Ferriday addresses.

Incumbent Chief Arthur K. Lewis’s report for the period was not available, and Sommers said that as of Friday the Ethics Commission has not received it, though it is possible the documentation could still be in the mail.

“It had to be postmarked by Feb. 4, and if we receive it and it has that, we will go by the postmark,” Sommers said.

While Lewis’ 2016 campaign report is not available, on Jan. 24 he filed a supplement to the March 2012 election, showing he had $1,236.99 in cash on hand for the period that started Jan. 1, 2015 and ended Dec. 31, 2015.

During that time he spent $55, on a post office box.

Rosa Demby, who prepared the supplemental report for Lewis, said she also prepared the 2016 disclosure report and that the office had mailed it in early February.